Óg Dìolairean
by alienyouthct
Summary: "Nice rack, Xander." "…because getting compliments on tits I shouldn't even have isn't weird at all. Thanks, Kennedy."
1. Chapter 1

Title: _Óg Dìolairean  
><em>Author: JoeHundredaire  
><span>Rating:<span> PG-13/FR15  
><span>Disclaimer:<span> Right, I actually went and checked to be sure this time… after being passed around like a slut at a frat party over the past few years, _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, _Angel: the Series_, and all associated characters now belong to Warner Brothers. With a myriad of writers, artists, and editors - and directors, now that we're getting decent movie and television renditions - actual rights are a nightmare when you go near a comic book universe. Suffice it to say that Marvel Entertainment LLC owns all of the property printed in their comics, along with the television and movie adaptations of said same property. Not mine, don't sue, and so forth and so on.  
><span>Summary:<span> "Nice rack, Xander." "…because getting compliments on tits I shouldn't even have isn't weird at all. Thanks, Kennedy."  
><span>Joe's Note:<span> After one of my Fic-a-Day story posts, I got an email from dogbertcarroll. I'll condense it down to the salient point in the interest of getting to what you all came for:  
><em>The basic idea is that Xander gets wounded post Sunnydale and (thanks to the chaos that still clings to him) healing him with magic is a bit complicated. Willow figured out it's easier to change him thanks to the chaos and turns him into a slayer. As a slayer he can easily heal wounds that will kill a normal human, and had an impressive rack. Which leads to a bit of drooling on Willow's part and some jealousy on Kennedy's. Willow tries to change him back once he's healed but can't get it to work right.<br>_He wanted me to take it from there into the DC universe but that's really not my wheelhouse and my Lexipedia was too busy settling in back at home and catching up on her day job to hold my hand through even a one-shot. So I decided to keep the vague outline and the superhero theme, but spin it back in a direction I was more comfortable with…  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, Vi9, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

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><p>"I'm a girl."<p>

"It was the only-"

"You turned me into a girl."

"I had to! Otherwise, you wou-"

"I hate to break it to you, Willow, but you're not the Californian Goddess of Death! You didn't 'have' to do anything! You chose to do something! Just like I chose to step in front of that sword for Faith! I chose to sacrifice myself so that she could make the killing blow! I didn't have to. I could have let her die. One of the other Slayers would have killed the demon in her place. Might have had to sacrifice another Slayer on top of Faith to set things up the same way. We'll never know, because I made a choice. Because I realized I was getting slow. Tired. Old, at least in this game. I wanted to make my death mean something; to go out the same way I've lived the last decade and a half: fighting the good fight. But then you decided that my choices didn't mean anything to you, and so you reached in and took my free will away from me. And…" Reaching up, Xander Harris grabbed at his throat before whirling around to glare at the woman standing in the bathroom doorway behind him. "It's bad enough that I'm suddenly the wrong gender, even worse that I'm now half the age I should be… but why the fuck did you turn me into Merida?"

Willow Rosenberg scowled, bringing a hand up to poke at Xander's far too squishy chest. "Don't take that tone of voice with me, buster. If you hadn't gotten your body so polluted with chaos magic over the years, I would have been able to heal you just fine without resorting to something like this. So if you think about it, it's actually your fault that you're like this."

Eyes widening, Xander reached up and batted Willow's hand away, suppressing the urge to apologize when he heard something in the redhead's forearm crack. The pain was as temporary as the injury itself, he consoled himself; Willow would inevitably fix it with magic, just like she 'fixed' anything else she perceived to be wrong with the world around her. "No, me being dead because of the choice I made would be my fault. I didn't ask you to try healing me, much less… this. So this is all completely your fault and I'm not going to let you duck responsibility. Speaking of ducking, though, I'm still waiting for an answer. Why… am… I… Merida?"

After an attempt at Resolve Face didn't sway Xander in the slightest, Willow smiled nervously as she cradled her injured arm against her chest. "Well, um, the accent is the easiest to explain." She paused, gathering her thoughts, and Xander narrowed his eyes before gesturing impatiently for her to continue. "When you were unconscious in the infirmary, I transformed you into a girl and then turned you into a Slayer so you'd have their healing. I started trying to turn you back into a Xander-shaped person once your body didn't, you know, have a giant hole poked in it anymore. But I couldn't. Ungirl you, I mean. So I had them keep you under for a bit longer so that I could collect some memories and copy them into your head. I mean, I think we can both agree that it would be awkward weird not-fun if one of us had to teach you how to put a bra on or how to sit properly in a skirt or what to do when your period comes aro-"

Groaning, Xander slapped his hand over Willow's mouth, cutting off her babbling. "Twenty words or less." Although while it didn't explain the accent, it did explain why he was having a hard time staying angry about his current situation no matter how hard he tried. Willow had already reprogrammed him to be fine with his girlhood by way of a pile of memories that would make it seem natural and comfortable. Awesome. Because nothing said friendship like a nice, thorough mind fucking.

The answer came not from Willow, who stood there pouting at him petulantly, but instead from the shorter Latina who had arrived at some point and was now peeking over the redhead's shoulder at him. "Willow scooped too much out of Orla's head to cram into yours, and so now you're Scottish." Charisse Kennedy paused, using her fingers to count how many words she'd used so far, before tossing out a few more. "Nice rack, Xander."

"…because getting compliments on tits I shouldn't even have isn't weird at all. Thanks, Kennedy."

"Yeah, I can see how that'd be weird. Hmm. You're supposed to have an ass even as a guy. Can I compliment that instead? I'm really more of an ass girl, which comes in handy because Willow is… well, Willow."

Xander blew a raspberry at the utterly unapologetic Slayer before turning back around so he could study his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Reaching up, he ran his fingers through his long, wild, orangish-red locks several times before ruffling it and letting out a groan. "Okay, fine, I'll accept that the accent is a side effect of a necessary evil, AKA the girl memory stuffage thing. If it really starts to bother me, I can always hire an accent coach to help me mellow it out, just like anyone else who cringes at the sound of their own voice. But what about the rest of me? Was the whole body Merida makeover really necessary? Especially this hair?"

Willow shrugged helplessly. "It was supposed to be temporary, remember? We were watching _Brave_ the night before and Kennedy kept making jokes about giving me a makeover for some dirty Disney princess bedroom fun so Merida was bouncing around in my head and you know how magic is and… and…" Trailing off, she took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts before continuing. "And you're not really Merida. More like Merida Plus. You're older and a bit taller and prettier and improved in, uh, other ways."

Yes, Xander had noticed that. The moment he sat up in the infirmary, as a matter of fact. After all, it was hard to miss that much weight shifting on his chest, especially when there wasn't supposed to be any at all. Or how much wider his hips were, or that sitting down still felt weird because his ass seemed to arrive at its destination unexpectedly early. But rather than launch into a discussion of the choices Willow had made and how skeezy it made him feel that she'd essentially designed a jailbait sexpot body for him, Xander kept his attention firmly fixed on his hair. "And you couldn't have improved me with some straight hair? Preferably shorter straight hair? I mean, do you know how much shampoo and conditioner I'm going to go through taking care of this mane? How long it'll take me to get ready in the morning? And…" Trailing off, he frowned. Being one of the more recent additions to the platoon of Slayers he oversaw, he obviously knew the girl Willow had mentioned but not all that well. "Does Orla have a secret girly side that she's never shown me, or is being turned into a girl bringing out my inner metrosexual?"

Squeezing past Willow and entering the bathroom, Kennedy reached up and began playing with Xander's hair. "There's always door number 'C'." Xander raised an eyebrow at that. "You're awfully into Spike's soap operas, cook pretty damn well for a guy, are responsible for the majority of the castle's interior design, and I've heard you offering fashion advice to your Slayers. 'Metro' isn't the prefix I'm thinking belongs on your something-sexual." Frowning, she grabbed a hair tie out of a basket on a nearby shelf and pulled Xander's hair into a ponytail, tying it back before reaching up to prod at the sides of his head. "Hmm. We definitely need to trim the ends down to a single length… but what do you think about an undercut? Maybe even shaving both sides down? It'd take a lot of the weight off your head and cut down on maintenance…"

"First of all, not gay here. That's you and Willow and Satsu's schtick. The Xan-Man loves the ladies… which means the Xan-Girl loving the ladies makes me a lesbian, doesn't it? Huh. I'll be damned. Second of all…" Xander did his best to visualize what she was proposing, drawing on mental images of some of the Slayers currently roaming the castle who also sported the style in question. "Could work. Especially since my inner Orla screams whenever I think of pulling a Sinéad O'Connor. Because while she's not too girly, she's girly enough to be offended by that idea. Thanks again for that, Willow." Turning his head as best he could with Kennedy's hands in the way, Xander eyed the various cosmetics stacked on the shelves to his right, taking mental notes as to what he did and didn't recognize, much less know how to use. "So I'm stuck like this, Willow? You're sure?"

"Pretty positive, yeah."

"And I'm guessing that bad things would happen if you tried whatever the first spell was while daydreaming about… hell, I'll take Rapunzel over Merida if you can't get your mind off Disney's girls. Or that ice queen chick from the new movie coming out this fall. I'm actually kinda liking that idea better, now that I think about it, because not only would Rapunzel's hair be an even bigger nightmare for me, but it's magic hair and so-"

"Um, since the spell was pretty much just me having a little chat with Hecate about turning a son into a daughter? I don't think it'd end well, no."

Slumping, Xander stared at the alien reflection in the mirror for a few seconds before perking back up. Just because Willow couldn't fix the biggest problem didn't mean she couldn't fix the smaller ones. "What about doing an aging spell? Preferably old enough to drink, but I'll take voting age if that's all you can manage?"

"You know how badly most Slayers seem to age. Do you want to risk it?"

Xander cringed as he met Kennedy's eyes in the mirror. She, Satsu, and Faith were the exceptions rather than the rule when it came to the first generation Slayers. Various forms of self-destructive behavior were the norm among them, ranging from excessive alcohol and drug use to self-mutilation to questionable sexual antics to berserker-esque battlefield tactics that eventually came to an abrupt end when an enemy took advantage of their tunnel vision. Faith, in an uncharacteristic moment of introspection, had hypothesized that after a certain point, the Slayer Spirit felt the urge to move on to a younger and healthier host and… encouraged… its current vessel to hasten the jump. They had no way to either prove or disprove that theory, but Willow was right. He didn't want to risk it. "Fine. But since I know you can cast certain spells on me like this with no problem? You're going to be scooping out a few more brains for me in the next few days."

"Okay?"

"And when she gets back from her current mission…"

"Oh no."

"…you're the one who gets to explain all this to my girlfriend."

"Eep."


	2. Chapter 2

Joe's Note: Since some people were curious about it, I decided to roll back time a bit and show some of what happened in between Xander getting transformed and his debut as a public superhero. Or should I say 'her' debut as a superhero'ine'. Ah, the joys of writing transgender fiction. The English language isn't really equipped to handle this sort of situation…  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, Vi9, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

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><p>"Well aren't you just… delicious."<p>

Looking up from where he was picking at his nails with the knife Faith had given him, Xander sucked in a nervous breath at the sight of his girlfriend standing in the doorway. While he hadn't known the exact day of her return - the details of her missions were 'need to know' and Giles and Faith were of the opinion that he didn't need to know - he'd known it would come eventually. And yet despite all his preparations, now that it was here? He had no idea what to do. As the blonde continued to stare at him, an odd little smile on her face, he slid down to the end of the bed and rose to his feet, slowly closing the distance between them. "Hey. So, uh, did Willow explain how all this happened? And how it's completely her fault and not at all mine?"

Amora Incantare shrugged before raising one hand to Xander's face, gently tracing her fingers over his cheek. "She might have said something along those lines. To be honest, I tuned her out after 'turned Xander into a hotter version of Merida'. I've found the Scots to be a delightful people from the day I first began whispering in Constantín mac Áeda's ear, guiding him against those savages that worshipped the Æsir and Vanir…" Leaning in, she bit Xander's jaw roughly enough to make him hiss in pain, but he knew that these days he wouldn't even need her help to walk out of their room in the morning with flawless skin. "Now I have a gorgeous little Scottish girlfriend that I can play with all I want. And without cheating on the person I love."

Before Xander could respond to that, his breath left him in a loud huff as Amora planted her hands on his shoulders and shoved him backward hard. Like several other times she'd pulled the same stunt, his feet actually left the ground as he went flying back to land on the bed with a grunt. While it was becoming increasingly clear that this homecoming would be no different than any other, he felt compelled to ensure they were on the same page. "We're still good, then? I mean, I knew you were… which means it shouldn't be a problem that I-"

"Let's just say that someone will be getting a very lovely Hanukkah present this year. Or Yule. I suppose it depends on whether or not she's still claiming she's Jewish when the time rolls around." Amora slowly slid her hands up Xander's side and then across his chest, eventually coming to a stop with her fingers curled around the neckline of his black t-shirt. Pulling harshly, she tore it clean in two down the front before waving her hand twice and using magic to dispose of the remains. Then she paused, hooking a finger in the bridge of Xander's rather utilitarian white bra and tugging gently. "Although I'll be having words with whoever took you shopping. I prefer my presents to have quality wrapping jobs."

Xander chuckled, craning his neck so he could see what she was up to. "Actually, that was my decision. I figured you'd want to take me out shopping when you got back and so I only let them buy me the bare minimum. Which I'm sure violates some sort of girl rule - turning down free clothes, I mean - but even with Orla's memories, I'm still not a very good girl."

Dissolving the bra with a yellowish-green pulse of eldritch energy, Amora grinned at him wolfishly. "Does that mean you're a very naughty girl?"

"Not exactly where I was going with that, but… giggity."

* * *

><p>"I had snoo-snoo."<p>

"Hush, darling."

"Seriously, we broke the bed in four places." There was a low, long groan as the headboard finally called it quits and collapsed, the remains thankfully tipping over to the side rather than onto where Xander and Amora were lying. His mind raced as he opened his mouth to crack the obligatory joke he thought the situation called for, only to let out a grunt as the mattress dropped the last few inches and hit the floor with a thump. "Err, make that six."

Chuckling, Amora ran her fingers through Xander's hair as she held his head to her chest and holy hell, having nails scraping against his head wasn't supposed to feel that good, was it? Because if that was a standard girl thing, he had to apologize to… Faith was his only living ex, wasn't she? Damn. That was kinda depressing. Not because he had something against Faith, but because he'd dated a bunch of other women an- "So sue me for deciding not to hold back now that I know you can take it. Besides, I suspect that we won't be needing this room - or its bed - too terribly much longer."

Xander nodded as best he could, not wanting to risk dislodging the hand doing such amazing things to his scalp. "I've been worried for a while now about Willow's backslide when it comes to magical morality, but I had responsibilities. Now? I've trained people who can take over anything even remotely essential that I do for the Council, and I'll even be leaving them with some well-trained minions. So yeah, I think it might be time to move on with my life. Before she decides that she 'has' to do something to me that's even weirder than this."

"I don't know. I don't think it's weird at all." Amora gave a faint tug on Xander's hair, making him hiss in a mixture of pain and pleasure, and then rolled them over so she was on top of him. "As a matter of fact, I kind of like it."

Leaning up, Xander pressed a soft kiss to the blonde's lips. "Gee, I never would have guessed."

After staring down at him for a moment, Amora frowned and sat up a bit straighter atop his hips. "Am I supposed to be disgusted by you now, then? Leave you? Is that how you imagined this situation unfolding? Or… perhaps hoped it would?"

Xander forced himself up onto his elbows, blinking owlishly up at Amora. "What? No! I just thought-"

"Darling, we may have the same genders as humans, but I'm not even the same species as you. Why would I care about your gender? Either way, it's still xenophilia." Amora raised one fine blond brow at that, waiting for Xander to shrug in response before continuing. "Besides, one of my best friends before the fall of Asgard was a shapeshifter. I know a thing or two about caring more for the insides than the outsides." Reaching down, she let her fingers play over the soft orangish-red fuzz on the sides of Xander's head; the undercut that Kennedy had talked him into getting seemed to endlessly fascinate the Vanaþegnar. "Although speaking of the outsides… I'd like to think that you hold me in higher esteem than Willow. I'm surprised you didn't ask me if I could fix you."

Leaning into her touch, Xander rubbed the side of his head against her hand. "When? I think I got out a whopping three sentences before my mouth was, uh, otherwise occupied." Amora blew a noisy raspberry at that, making him chuckle. Because he definitely wasn't girly enough to be giggling. Nuh uh. No way. He did find it funny, though, that certain little mannerisms of his had rubbed off on the Vanaþegnar. "Besides, some guys do listen to their girlfriends when they talk. I remember what you told me about the how you measure up to some of the Æsir and Vanir, and how they compare to the Olympians. Willow got Hecate involved in this mess and I'm not going to ask you to go against the Olympians' magical specialist because we both know how it'd end." He shrugged. "Granted I might have a different opinion on things if Willow hadn't mindfucked me into being okay with the situation but… eh. Them's the breaks."

Amora scowled at that, her fingers scratching harshly against Xander's scalp as she curled her fingers into a fist before relaxing them. "Willow neglected to mention that aspect of her little… magical adventure. I believe I'll be having words with her in the near future." Personally, given some of the things she'd told him about her past, Xander felt that was a bit of a 'pot, kettle, black' situation… but it was nice to know someone was looking out for him, so he decided to keep his mouth shut. "Hmm. Are you going to pick a new name to go with your new form? Not that I particularly mind calling this version of you Xander, but I imagine your friends find it unnerving to use your male self's name for this form."

Nodding, Xander put one hand on Amora's hip and pushed gently, coaxing her off onto the bed beside him. "Yeah, Willow winces every time someone calls me Xander. I guess it's hard to forget about your colossal fuck up and move on when people are constantly rubbing it in your face." Leaning to his right, he grabbed a stack of folders off the top of his nightstand. Placing them on the bed beside him, he fanned them out so he could check the names printed on the tabs before selecting one and passing it to Amora. "One of the seers slipped that under my door the day after I woke up like this. I think it's a hint as to where I'm supposed to go from here. Now that I'm a Slayer, I can do pretty much everything she can do and so it wouldn't be hard for me to become a superheroine. Especially once I emotionally blackmail Willow into refreshing my old Halloween soldier memories and transferring a bit of advanced training from the minds of the men on our wetworks teams. And what this has to do with my name is… Alexandra Natashova Bochkareva. Lexi for short. What do you think?"

Amora's brow inched back upward as she leafed through the contents of the folder, looking back and forth between it and Xander. "I suppose I can see it. You turning yourself into a miniature version of Natasha, that is. But isn't taking on a name from her culture just because you want to pattern yourself after her superhero identity a bit of… oh, what was that term Chloe used when she lectured me on how it was wrong for the Asgardians to assume the identities of a pantheon worshipped by Midgard's mortals? Cultural misappropriation?"

"Pfft. Like I care what Captain Social Justice Brigade thinks of me. But I guess you're right; having a Russian name would be kind of weird, especially since I have a Scottish accent at the moment. Hmm." Xander drummed his fingers against the mattress as he thought, inevitably bringing them into contact with the other folders. "It's probably still misappropriation because I'm an American mutt, but maybe Orla's parents could help me pick out a nice Scottish name for myself?"

"Or meet in the middle and combine Alexis with a more traditionally Scottish surname. Establish your Highland bona fides and such." Amora closed the folder that contained all the Council's information on Natasha Romanova and dropped it on the mattress before scooping up the other three files. "And these?"

Xander shrugged. While he had his suspicions based on the parentage of two of them and the skill set of the third, they were just that: suspicions. "Teen Avengers Assemble? Maybe? I mean, they're all roughly the same age as my new body, and two of them are the daughters of existing heroes while the third looks like she can kick some serious ass. Although speaking of the Avengers… you've never hidden your past from me. I know your history with them and with the superhero community as a whole. If I did go through with something like this, would it be a 'my' future or an 'our' future?"

Rather than respond directly, Amora scrunched up her brow in concentration as she mumbled some distinctly non-English words under her breath. Before Xander's eyes, the years began to melt away until the blonde looked like his new body's peer rather than a cradle-robbing cougar. "Of course I'd come with you, darling. Someone's got to keep you out of trouble, and I don't know those girls well enough to trust them with the job." Straightening up a bit, Amora inspected her new form before perking up and offering Xander a grin. "And if I took on a teenage form to match the rest of you, I'd have an excuse to join you in buying new clothes."

"Amora, since when have you ever needed an excuse to buy new clothes?"

"Never, darling, bu-"

"Xander, have you seen… eep!" Despite having walked in on similarly awkward situations numerous times in the past, Willow evidently still hadn't learned to knock before she entered. The redhead stood in the doorway, jaw working soundless as she stared at the naked pair of girls and their destroyed bed. "Ohmigoddess! I'm so sorry, I didn't thi-"

His girlfriend would probably smack him for it later… but Xander knew exactly how he had to respond to the situation at hand, lest he get his geek card taken away. "Close the door! You're letting all the stank out!"


	3. Chapter 3

Joe's Note: I really did want to use Femslash February to touch on some of my existing stories in new and fun ways. And while I used it to show a probable future of _Red, White, and Blue_ and _Harry Potter and the Wand of Uru_, I really couldn't think of a way to use it similarly for _Óg Dìolairean_. So I decided instead to travel backward a bit, and give you all a peek at the time between Amora's return and the couple's journey to America. Enjoy.  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Nicholas, Alexander, Howard, MJ, Daniel, Christopher, Marc, Ziryo, Elliot, Crusifikz70, Timothy, Leigh, Jason, Chris, George, Koby, Ken, Thyatira, William, Wil, Invernos, Jack, Pat, Warren, Chris, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

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><p>On one hand, life in a Scottish castle was pretty damn awesome. The view was amazing, and she was living in something straight out of a fairytale. Or a Disney movie, cough <em>Brave<em> cough. Except the castle had been renovated and modernized before they'd arrived, and so she could indulge the medieval fantasy geek within her while still enjoying modern amenities like central heating and WiFi. And while the castle was located two miles or so from the nearest sleepy hamlet on the utterly boring Isle of Mull, the handful of on-staff witches meant that literally anywhere else in the world was merely a teleportation spell away.

On the other hand, it was a castle located at the tip of a peninsula on one of the Inner Hebrides. And so while the sunrises were gorgeous… in April, that meant suffering through temperatures just shy of forty degrees to enjoy them. She'd assumed that her new nature would allow her to weather them more easily, but Alexis NicConstantín was learning the hard way that there was nothing in the Slayer package that made her any less susceptible to the cold. "I know that watching the sunset together is supposed to be romantic, but I'm pretty sure that getting hypothermia together is the exact opposite of romantic. Can we maybe watch it from the window of our room?"

Standing on the edge of a rock face that dropped straight down into the waters of the sound, Amora shot a glance back over her shoulder as she spread her arms wide, welcoming the sea spray created each time the waves slammed against the rocks. "What are you talking about? This is delightful!"

"Amora? It's like, thirty-nine degrees out here. And the water that you keep getting sprayed with is even colder. That might be fun for Vanaþegnar, but humans… not so much." Granted Alexis hadn't exactly dressed for the weather; pajama pants, a tank top, and a windbreaker weren't exactly the ideal outfit for tackling these kinds of temperatures. But even if she'd been wearing something more suitable, there still would have been cold air against her face and hands. Gusts of wind. The occasional rogue water droplet. And she'd almost tripped and fallen twice on the way down because it was still pitch black out. What had she been thinking when she'd agreed to this? "You know what? I have a better idea. What do you say we go back to our room and watch the sunrise from there? I'll drag the bed over in front of the windows, we can strip down and curl up to watch the sun come up together…"

Shooting a glance back over her shoulder at the redhead, Amora quirked one lovingly sculpted brow. "While normally I wouldn't complain about such an offer, our room faces west. That sounds like a lovely way to watch the sunset tonight, though." Returning her gaze to the turbulent waters of the sound, she shook her head slowly. "No, I'm right where I want to be. It took me three hundred and thirty-five years to find my way back to this view. Can you really blame me for wanting to enjoy it every morning?"

Alexis shook her head as she rubbed her hands up and down her sides, trying to work some warmth back into her body. Did she blame Amora? Actually, not even a little. She was honest enough to know that she was the only one at fault for her current predicament. Amora had been coming down to this exact spot to watch the sunrise every morning since she'd moved into the castle with Alexis several months ago. Alexis was the bright one who'd decided that today was the day to join the blonde. When doing so meant getting up before five o'clock so that she could be waiting when the sun rose at exactly 5:12 AM. And it was thirty-nine degrees out before wind chill. "…this was dumb of me. Doing everything together isn't romantic, it's weird and obsessive and I'm going to head inside."

"Wait!" Just as Alexis turned to leave, Amora finally pulled herself away from the view and closed the distance between them, taking advantage of her superhuman strength to sweep the redhead off her feet and carry her toward the castle bridal style. "Not that you're wrong; there is a difference between love and obsession. But while I do so enjoy this view… I enjoy the view around you even more. I usually don't have to choose because you don't wake until after the sun rises, but now that I do? I'd rather spend this morning with you than with the sun. There will be other mornings."

Shifting in Amora's arms, Alexis nuzzled her cheek against the blonde's neck as she nodded. "Once a day, give or take."

Amora let out a snort of laughter at that before flexing her legs and launching them both up to the top of a ten foot rock face, skipping the few minutes worth of hiking that mere mortals were forced to endure. "If only I was still in my previous incarnation, I could just give you an apple and solve all of our problems." What? Not that Alexis wasn't a fan of apples, because she was. They were favorite fruit, actually. But how could an apple- "I haven't always been Amora the Enchantress. In past Ragnarok cycles, I was actually Iðunn, the goddess of apples and youth. Eating one of the golden apples that I controlled would have turned you into… well, one of us."

That made Alexis straighten up a bit and fix Amora with a disbelieving look. "One of us as in… a Vanaþegnar?"

The corner of Amora's mouth quirked upward at the question. "Not quite. You would have become an ásynja."

Having done a ton of research into Norse mythology since the beginning of their relationship, Alexis recognized that term. "Wait, woah, what? Me? One of the Æsir? I mean obviously it's not completely permanent because you're not one anymore, but still. That would mean you'd be stuck with me for-"

"It may be because the 'honeymoon phase' of our relationship has still yet to wear off, or you may in fact be that delightful… but I can think of worse people to spend a few hundred years with. Or more, cycles permitting." Amora paused for a moment to collect her thoughts but before she could continue, Alexis took the blonde's head between her hands and kissed her hard. When they finally broke apart, Amora looked a bit surprised but decidedly pleased with herself. "Not that I would ever complain about that sort of treatment, but-"

Leaning back in, Alexis silenced Amora with another kiss, and then gave her a third for good measure. "If my idea blowing up in my face wasn't a big enough sign, that... that's proof that I need to take lessons from you. Because telling your girlfriend that you'd want to make her into a literal goddess and spend an entire cycle with her? That's romantic as fuck."

"I know. They call me the Enchantress for a reason, darling."

"I thought you told me that you picked Enchantress as your title back when everyone else in Asgard and Vanaheim was using patronymics because you didn't know who your parents were, so you didn't have one and felt like an outsider with just your one name?"

"Semantics."

* * *

><p>Another downside to living in a Scottish castle was that when one did so with a whole bunch of other people, space was at a premium. There were a lot of Slayers, Watchers, witches, and other support staff who needed a place to stay and not much real estate to house them in. On top of the need for the infirmary Alexis had visited all too often as her old self, a dining hall, kitchens, laundry facilities, training facilities, and a command center. In her case, though? It was no longer as much of a negative as it had been when she'd first arrived, because she now had a girlfriend who was a kick ass witch capable of going all TARDIS on their rooms. Well, rooms plural now. It had started as a moderately-sized bedroom and nothing more, forcing them to head down the hall to separate single sex bathrooms as needed. Now, they had a comfortable sitting room along with a spacious bedroom, a walk-in closet, and a positively luxurious ensuite.<p>

An ensuite with a tub! Alexis hadn't truly come to appreciate it until after her change, but now… oh God yes. She loved her tub. Running her hand over the porcelain lip fondly, she tossed a trio of periwinkle and rose bath bombs into the steaming water with a single flick of her wrist. "I'm going to miss this tub. Can we rip it out and take it with us when we leave?"

Amora let out a throaty laugh as she leaned back against side of the tub, stretching one long leg out to poke a bath bomb with her toe as it spun in circles and released occasional puffs of pink foam. "I don't see why not. We've made a lot of good memories in this tub. And it's exceptionally well enchanted these days; I haven't had to repair cracks in almost two weeks."

Grinning sheepishly at that, Alexis slid out of her bathrobe and let it drop to pool at her feet before climbing into the oversized clawfoot tub. "Our poor, poor tub. It never asked for this." Sinking into the water up to her neck, she remained on her knees for a few seconds as the hot bath chased away the chill still clinging to her from her earlier misadventure before slinking forward to curl up against her girlfriend's side. Resting her head on Amora's shoulder, Alexis wrapped an arm around the blonde's waist before closing her eyes and sighing contentedly. "As much fun as we've had in this tub, I think times like this are actually my favorite. Is that weird?"

"Really? You prefer bathing with me to making merry sport?"

"It's weird, isn't it?" Opening her eyes, Alexis stared up into Amora's curious blue gaze for a few seconds before shrugging helplessly. "I don't know, I just… I've had sex with people I don't really care about, and I spend lots of time doing other things with people I do care about. But when was the last time anyone cared enough about me to just exist with me? We're not even bathing; that would be productive. We're lying here together in the water getting pruney, wasting time that we could be using more productively on any of a number of projects. But you don't mind wasting time with me because we're wasting it together. I feel like… that's true love right there."

Amora actually appeared taken aback by the torrent of words, making Alexis wince. Had she made things awkward? She'd made things awkward, hadn't she? Aww crap. Well, it'd been fun while it lasted. Hopefully Amora would let her keep the room until she moved to America; thanks to the blonde, she probably owned more clothes than would have fit in her original room. And- "More than once, you've said or done something that makes me question why I'm with you… and then you say something like that and suddenly I'm reminded." Wrapping one arm around Alexis's waist possessively, Amora brought her other hand up to run through the redhead's wild locks. "I would definitely have given you one of my apples."

Leaning into Amora's touch, Alexis grinned stupidly. "Maybe once your people get their shit back together, we can go raiding. I mean, if you were Iðunn but now you're not, who's guarding the apples now?"

"I… that's a very good question."

"Well nobody now-now because the apples are gone. But once they're back, if there's no Iðunn anymore…" Suddenly, something occurred to Alexis and she paused. "Wait, I'm encouraging you to steal something for my personal gain. Or plotting to steal something with you for my personal gain. Am I turning into a villain? Has this whole relationship just been a really slow seduction to the Dark Side?"

Her expression starting at something vaguely curious, Amora was most definitely exasperated by the time Alexis reached the end of her ramble. "And now I'm back to questioning why I'm with you."

Alexis pretended to ponder that for a moment before using her fingers to tick off points against Amora's ribs. "I'm occasionally sweet and romantic, I was willing to see the good in you when nobody else was, I love your goose laugh and your snorts, I'll try literally anything you make in the kitchen, and now I've got an accent that you really dig along with breasts that you seem ridiculously fond of?" Which was a hell of an ego boost, Alexis had to admit. It was one thing to think your own breasts were nice. It was another thing entirely to have a veritable goddess tell you so.

"Can you blame me? They really are spectacular, especially for a Midgardian." Taking advantage of the superior strength that she so seldom showed in front of others, Amora rolled Alexis over on top of her so that the redhead's back was to her chest, allowing her to reach both hands around and cup Alexis's breasts. Squeezing them gently, Amora pulled Alexis back against her as she nuzzled the smaller girl's neck. "I can't wait to introduce you to Emma Frost; she's going to positively die of jealousy. She paid a good deal for hers, and they're not nearly as lovely as these."

Moaning softly, Alexis turned her head and pressed her lips against the corner of Amora's mouth even as she arched her back, pushing her breasts into the blonde's eager hands. "I feel like I should object to you talking about another woman when we're fooling around… but you're telling me that I'm better, so I guess I can allow it."

"We're fooling around? I thought we were wasting time existing together?"

"Well right now you seem to be existing with your hands on my breasts."

"Yes. Exactly."


	4. Chapter 4

Joe's Note: This was the other half of the original _Redback_ posting from Fic-a-Day. Like Chapter 1, this has been expanded a bit as part of splitting the story and inserting the intermediate chapter. Mostly to accommodate a newly introduced character, but there are other changes scattered here and there to accommodate the changes that will be introduced in the midquel chapter, along with the events of the sequel chapters that follow.  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, Vi9, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

><p>"Thank you for your cooperation, officer. We'll be right out."<p>

Well this just sucked. And not just because she was being forced to wear a dress that - while being her favorite shade of purple - did absolutely nothing for her figure. That was an occupational hazard when you were part of a bridal party: nobody was allowed to look better than the bride, especially not the maid of honor. Kate Bishop scowled as she watched the armed gunmen who had taken her sister's wedding hostage gather their varied loot. "Seriously? The cops are letting them walk away?"

Inching a bit to her left so she was better hidden behind Kate, her sister Susan groaned. "Yes, Kate. This way we get to walk away too."

"That's ridiculous." Kate's scowl grew as she looked over at the nearest of the gunmen. Despite being well dressed - and armed - it was obvious that he was in decent but not exceptional shape. Especially when she compared him and his friends to her current self-defense instructors… "We can take these guys. I mean, there's something like two hundred of us and only five of them."

Behind her, Susan sucked in a breath as the gunman pulled his weapon from its underarm holster and pointed it at Kate's head. "Yes, sweetie, but all five of us have guns."

Before Kate could offer a rebuttal, a thunderous crack echoed through St. Patrick's Cathedral and the skull of the gunman with chin-length blond hair simply… disappeared. "Actually, there are only four of you with guns. And mine's bigger." The barrel of a massive rifle emerged from the shadows that cloaked the Lady Chapel behind the high altar, followed by a teenage redhead in a glossy black and red catsuit. She had bright blue eyes ringed heavily with mascara, wavy red hair that was pulled back into a ponytail with the sides shaved down to a soft fuzz, and if she was old enough to legally work in the state of New York, Kate would eat her heels. After sending a pointed look down at her gun, the redhead offered a smirk and some advice in her soft, Scottish brogue. "Your move. But before you think about going for human shields, I want to point out that I can shoot you through them and saving only a hundred and ninety-six people is still a ninety-eight percent success rate. And that's pretty damn good in my book."

The gunmen trained their weapons on the slowly advancing newcomer even as they exchanged uncertain looks. Finally, the one who had threatened Kate cocked his gun and let out a bark of laughter. "You're bluffing."

"Are you sure about that?" The redhead ascended the two steps to the high altar before pausing, raising her gun so the butt was pressed against her right shoulder. Pulling the trigger, she transformed another gunman's chest from an outie to an innie before smoothly pivoting and destroying the shoulder of a third gunman. What was left of his arm dropped to the floor with his gun still gripped tightly in his hand, and the girl raised an eyebrow as she peered over the top of the scope. "Do you want to take that chance?"

Kate glanced to her left, smirking as one of the remaining gunmen bent down and placed his pistol on the floor before kicking it away as he raised his hands high. That just left the one closest to Kate… who barely managed to make it half a step closer to her before being caught in the side by a bolt of brilliant blue electricity. "Ah!"

Swinging the gun up to rest casually on her shoulder, the girl swaggered over to watch as the man hit the floor, twitching and jerking wildly. "Black catsuit with a red hourglass on the front. Red hair. Big gun. Willingness to use it. Did you seriously think I'd put this much work into a Black Widow imitation and not go the whole nine yards?" Pivoting, she sent the gunman who'd surrendered crashing to the floor with another blast of electricity before turning back to Kate. She offered the taller brunette a smile… that Kate promptly wiped off her savior's face with a blistering slap. "Ow! What the… holy… what is wrong with you? I just saved you and your family!"

"After giving them the idea of taking human shields! God! If you'd been any slower with your zapper, he would have grabbed me and I might have ended up the one missing in your 'one ninety-nine out of two hundred isn't bad' math." Kate shrugged off Susan's hands as she stalked forward, poking the girl in the chest. "So excuse me if I think that being the one missing would really, really suck. That being said?" Bringing both hands up, Kate grabbed the girl's head and pulled her in for a kiss. After silently counting to three - it was the thoroughly stereotypical reward from a damsel to her hero, not the opening salvo of a heated make out session - Kate pulled back. "Thanks."

The redhead grinned goofily, reaching up to touch her lips, but a bright flash of yellowish-green light interrupted her before she could reply. Kate's eyes widened as a glowing ring of light appeared on the floor two steps behind the redhead and a bit to her right. It slowly rose into the air, revealing what appeared to be a person as it ascended toward he ceiling. First came knee-high black leather boots with white spats, followed by thigh-high green silk stockings with repeating gold embroidered circles up their faces, and then a thin strip of bare thigh. Going purely by the legs, Kate was willing to guess the new arrival was a woman, which was only reinforced as the ring continued upward to reveal a gold leather corset cinched around an emerald keyhole minidress with long, lighter green sleeves that left the woman's shoulders bare. Finally came a gorgeous, upturned face topped with golden blonde hair that was held back away from her eyes by a light green headband decorated by odd, fin-like protrusions. A foot after it cleared the woman's head, the yellowish-green ring fizzled out of existence and the new arrival sighed before relaxing and opening her eyes. "I do so hope you brought enough to share with the entire class, Katherine."

"Enough of what?" Just when Kate thought she couldn't get any more surprised by the situation, the blonde stepped forward and wrapped her arm around the redhead's waist, leaning in to rest her head on the taller girl's shoulder. Winking, she blew a kiss at Kate… who proceeded to blush as red as her savior's hair. "Oh! The two of you are-"

"Mmm. Although if you were to kiss me as well, then perhaps I could forgive her for cheating on me and-" The blonde scowled at the sound of breaking glass, and Kate whirled around to watch as the shattered remains of the massive rose window at the rear of the cathedral rained downward. "Hold that thought, would you?"

The destroyed window allowed the strangest quartet Kate had ever seen to enter the cathedral, floating forward through the air until they came in for a landing between the two rows of pews in the cathedral's transept. They stood there staring up at the wedding party - or, more likely, its newest additions - in mute disbelief. Stepping up beside Kate on her right, the redhead leaned in toward her. "Wanna be a participant instead of a spectator?" Kate let out a vaguely agreeable noise and the girl chuckled. "Your right hand, my left thigh. Grab and pull. Three… two… one… now."

As the girl surged forward, Kate followed the instructions she'd been given and wrapped her hand around… the grip of a pistol? Then again, what else would a faux-Widow carry in terms of extra weapons? It slipped smoothly from the redhead's thigh holster, and Kate raised it in a two-handed grip as she gave chase. Proper threat evaluation was a skill that had been drilled into her by every instructor she'd worked with, and she quickly drew a bead on the boy in a modified version of Bucky's costume. Even with a shield, he seemed to be closer to her league than the big green boy, the armored boy, or the godling. "Hands where we can see them."

"What?" The boys exchanged wide-eyed looks before turning back to her. Taking a step forward, the green boy held his hands up in surrender. "You do know we're here to save you, right?"

Shrugging her shoulder, the redhead let her rifle swing through the air before dropping into a ready position, peering through the scope. "Yeah, well, next time you might want to show up while people still need saving. And without destroying a priceless masterpiece."

Behind Hulk-Boy, Iron Teen crossed his arms over his chest and huffed loudly. "I told you not to go through that window, Hulkling. This is why you don't listen to Patriot."

"Hey hey hey. I didn't tell him to bust out the window." Patriot - which was a decent enough name for the not-Bucky in Kate's opinion, and definitely better than 'Hulkling' for the green boy - took a step to his left, putting some distance between him and Hulkling. "I suggested it. He didn't have to listen to my suggestion."

Breaking away from the others, the teenage Thor began wandering down the aisle toward the back of the cathedral. "I wonder if I can use my powers to put everything back together? I mean, I've done stranger…" His musings were cut short as the blonde slipped past Kate, closing the distance between them until she invaded his personal space. Grabbing Thor Boy by the chin, she leaned in and peered into his eyes. "Uh, hi?"

The blonde reached up, gently caressing Thor Boy's face. "Given your powers, I'm surprised that you didn't choose to pattern yourself after me."

"Well, Amora… I'm guessing you're the real Amora and not someone like us based on what you said?" Thor Boy waited for the now-named Amora to nod before continuing. "There are two problems with that idea. One: you're a villain. Were a villain. Not quite sure which. Either way, you don't really fit with the motif we're going for. And two: you're a girl. I'm not."

"I am also an Asgardian, whereas you are not." Amora gave Thor Boy a pat on the cheek before turning and walking away. "One of those is within your powers to correct, should you so choose. At that point, though, I would recommend patterning yourself after your mother if you're worried about adhering to an Avengers motif…"

Thor Boy took a step forward, his mouth opening… and then froze. He stared after Amora in disbelief, jaw working soundlessly for a few seconds, and then finally managed to string together something coherent. "Wait what? Are you sure I am who you think I am? Because my mother is a psychologist, not an Avenger."

Retaking her spot beside the still nameless redhead, Amora let out a throaty laugh. "The question you should really be asking yourself, Midgardian, isn't if you are who I think you are. It's if you are who you think you are."

As Thor Boy's expression shifted from confused to contemplative, Iron Teen took a step forward and offered Kate's companion his hand. "Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Iron Lad, and my friends are Asgardian, Hulkling, and Patriot. We're… well, the papers are calling us the Young Avengers. Not sure if we're going to change that, or who we'd have to talk to if we wanted to."

"Redback. Amora's already introduced herself. And…" Lowering her rifle, Redback reached out to take Iron Lad's hand, only to freeze with her hand halfway to his. "Katherine. Three feet to the bride's right, six inches higher than her shoulder. Fire." Kate didn't even hesitate, spinning around and firing a single round that passed between her sister and one of the bridesmaids before burying itself in the shoulder of the gunman who'd threatened her. He cried out before collapsing back to the floor and Redback let out a low whistle. "…definitely team material, don't you think, Amora?"


	5. Chapter 5

Joe's Note: And now we're moving forward. This was where I always intended to go with the story, albeit with the group acquiring a witch/magic user instead of Xander bringing Amora with him to America to start the team. We're actually going to end up with a team of six by the time this is all said and done, instead of the quintet implied in Chapter 2. I think you can guess who at least two of them are based on the folders… and there are only so many canon children of canon Avengers, which means the third folder isn't impossible to figure out ahead of time either. The sixth, I've given no clues yet that I'm aware of, nor shall I before the character decides to force themself on the team…  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, Vi9, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

><p>"Do you have any idea how much money I've raised for your department, Captain?"<p>

"Yes, Mister Bishop, but the fact remains that they constitute a clear and present danger-"

"The only clear and present danger here is to your career if you finish that sentence."

"Mister Bishop. We are fully willing to write off what your daughter did as self-defense. But one of these girls is responsible for the murder of three men, while the other is on the 'call the Avengers on sight' list. At the very least, they need to come downtown for-"

"And where was this kind of initiative when my family and I were being held hostage?"

Alexis bit her lip to avoid laughing as the flustered police captain did his best to deal with the increasingly irate Derek Bishop. While the policeman was right in that she had killed men tonight… well, they'd kinda been asking for it with the whole armed robbery thing. Letting them go would have just allowed them to prey upon others, while trying to apprehend them outside the cathedral could have resulted in the deaths of police officers. She and Amora had done the NYPD a hell of a favor tonight in her books, and it was nice to see that at least one person in the hospital's lobby recognized that.

Honestly, if not for Katherine - Kate, Alexis amended, the brunette had asked them to call her Kate - they'd have bugged out a long time ago. The Slayer would have either asked Amora to cast one of her handy dandy teleportation ring spells or, well, gotten up and walked right out of the hospital. It wasn't as if the cops could actually stop them if they decided to leave. After seeing the mess she'd made in the cathedral, Alexis doubted they'd even try beyond a few strong words. But Kate… Kate had been magnificent this evening. Kate was one of the three girls they'd come to New York to find. And so until they had a chance to talk to Kate about joining them, they were going nowhere fast.

Suddenly, Amora perked up and gave Alexis a quick kiss on the lips before rising to her feet. Without offering a word of explanation, she turned on her heel and snapped her fingers, causing one of the teleportation rings that the redhead had just been thinking about to sweep over the Asgardian. She disappeared into thin air, leaving Alexis all by her lonesome… just as the emergency room's doors slid open to admit an entire SWAT team's worth of reinforcements for Captain What's His Name. "Okay, now this is just getting ridiculous." Slapping a fresh clip into her Barrett M82A2, she hopped to her feet but kept her massive anti-materiel rifle pointed downward as she backed a few paces further away from the police. "See, I can understand you wanting to have a few words with me… but isn't bringing an entire SWAT team a bit of overkill?"

"After what you did at St. Patrick's, Miss?" One of the SWAT officers brought a rather wicked-looking black shotgun to bear on Alexis as his teammates raised an assortment of shotguns and rifles. "I think we brought just enough kill."

* * *

><p>Cassandra Lang scowled as she stared at the chunky black SWAT truck parked out in front of Lenox Hill Hospital, wondering how her brilliant plan had managed to go to shit. It had been too simple to fail, or so she'd thought. Step one: sneak out of her house. That had been easy enough, given how little her parents actually cared about her when they weren't in a courtroom. Step two: make her way to the hospital where the NYPD had brought everyone from the St. Patrick's incident. Also easy, given that she knew the city's mass transit system like the back of her hand. Step three: get inside and find a way to talk to the Black Widow girl, Amora Junior, or both. Or maybe one of the other Young Avengers if they showed up to pick up their teammates. Whichever. She'd been working on that, which would have segued neatly into step four: convince the team to let her join up.<p>

Except now she couldn't because her step-father's coworkers had shown up to interrogate and probably arrest the girls. Cassie knew from her days in the Avengers Mansion that there were some superhuman prisons scattered around the country, where individuals that traditional penitentiaries couldn't handle were sent. Not only were they all out of her reach but, well, she couldn't exactly team up with jailbirds. And as things stood, they were her only lead on the Young Avengers.

God damn it.

Raising her hand, Cassie offered the police a one-fingered salute before turning away from the hospital… and slamming face-first into someone's breasts. Green breasts. But not green breasts in the Jen way; these were breasts covered in green fabric. Taking a step back, she looked up and gasped. "You!" Because while it was younger than it was supposed to be, Cassie recognized that face. The girl from the cathedral wasn't some kind of wannabe Amora, she was the real damn thing!

"Me." Arm flashing out faster than Cassie's eyes could track, Amora tangled her hand in the young blonde's hair and pulled her closer as her green eyes locked with Cassie's blue orbs, the Asgardian's free arm winding around Cassie's waist. "I thought I felt the witch's son, but you've been tainted by her as well. Not nearly as deeply, but enough to explain certain… discrepancies." What? "I'm hardly complaining, though. You're far more useful to us this way, to say nothing of your blossoming beauty."

Cassie blinked a few times before blushing on account of holy crap, a goddess had just called her pretty. Even if Amora was a Neutral Evil goddess and semi-regular Avengers villain, compliments were few and far between for her and so Cassie was going to take what she could get. "Um, thanks?" Looking down as best she could with Amora holding her in place, she chuckled nervously. "Any chance you can let me go? This is a bit awkward. And by a bit, I mean a lot. Like, Hulk-sized awkward."

Laughing softly, Amora instead let her hand drift down out of Cassie's hair, ghosting over the smaller blonde's neck and then down her back before… eep! Holy crap, there was a goddess grabbing her ass! "Must I? You really are quite pretty… like a flower that's been growing unnoticed behind a wall, waiting for someone to peek over and discover it."

Another compliment. If this kept up, Cassie was liable to get a complex. Still… "Don't you have a girlfriend? And didn't you try to kill my father a few times?"

"Actually, unless your mother slept with another height-multiplier altogether, I never fought against your father." Amora offered a lopsided smirk as she looked Cassie up and down slowly. "Hmm. They're both blue-eyed blonds, and I'm not familiar enough with either to recognize their features in you. Perhaps that's a question best left to _Maury_?"

Was she seriously suggesting… eww! And not just on normal parental sex thought grounds, either. Janet Pym was ridiculously pretty. Given the choice between her and Cassie's mom, who in their right mind would sleep with… well, Hank wasn't always in his right mind. But still! Shaking her head to try and dislodge those thoughts, Cassie shuddered. "So, um, why are you here? What do you want from me? What's your favorite kind of ice cream? Insert any other question that would derail our current conversation here?"

Amora laughed again in reply before leaning down so her lips brushed against Cassie's earlobe. "You saw what my girlfriend and I did tonight." While it wasn't exactly a question, Cassie nodded in response. "What would you think of taking up your late father's mantle?"

Jackpot.

* * *

><p>"Listen, Miss Redback-"<p>

"Alexis. Alexis NicConstantín. I'm sixteen, birthday is April 1st, and I'm from Dùn Dè in Alba. And if you're writing any of that down to run through the computers, you're wasting your time because I'm just reciting the information on my fake ID."

"…lovely. Listen, Miss NicConstantín. You may have had noble intentions for getting involved at St. Patrick's but at the end of the day, three men are dead at your hand. You're going to need to take responsibility for your actions and-"

"Why?" Kate's eyes bounced back and forth between the police and Redback-slash-Alexis, amazed at how calmly the redhead was handling things. After a bit of performance anxiety to start - undoubtedly due to the sheer number of guns being pointed her way - the teen had settled down and was doing an admirable job of fending off the police's questions. "Question for you, Captain. A train is running out of control down the tracks. A mile up ahead, a villain has tied five people to the tracks. You're standing at the points lever. If you realign the switch, the train will go onto a siding… where a single person is tied to the tracks. Do you flip the switch or do nothing?"

"I don't see what-"

"On the contrary, my friend. It has everything to do with tonight." Alexis gestured at the large television hanging on the wall, which was displaying CNN's coverage of the incident at the cathedral. Huh. That was… almost impossibly convenient, Kate mused. Was the redhead a technopath on top of everything else, or did she just have really good timing? "One track had five people on it. The other had two hundred civilians, dozens of your fellow police officers, and all the future victims of these men. So I threw the lever."

"And you think you have the right to make a choice like that? To decide who lives and who dies?"

That question earned the police captain a sigh and a shrug from Alexis. "You know, I once asked someone that same question. Or something close enough. She never gave me an answer. Personally? I don't know." The redhead tapped her fingers against her hip for a moment before gesturing to the floor. "Do you want to get philosophical? I mean, there are beings out there who function as death gods and goddesses for our world. While I shot the men, they didn't have to claim my prey. They could have gone 'hey, flattered by your offering, thanks but no thanks' and kept those three men from crossing over. So if you look at it from that perspective, while I did in fact shoot those men, it was someone other than me who ultimately decided their fate tonight. Probably Hades, since Hela's gone at the moment…" Her soft alto voice trailing off, Alexis looked around wildly for a few seconds before smiling widely. "At any rate, I've been stalling for time but my ride's here now. So I'm gonna go. We'll have to do this again sometime, though. Kate? My pistol?"

Eyes jumping from Alexis to the protesting police to her lap, Kate's eyes widened. Oh. Right. For some bizarre reason, neither the cops nor the hospital staff had so much as tried to get her to relinquish the black pistol she'd been openly carrying since she'd pulled it from Alexis's thigh holster. In retrospect, though, she probably should have expected the redhead to want her gun back at some point. Kate had hopped online at one point to distract herself from all the arguing; a new Glock 26 went for roughly five hundred dollars and, well, while that was a pair of shoes to a woman in her family, she didn't really know where Alexis sat financially. Picking the gun up by the barrel, she offered it to the redhead… who grabbed Kate's wrist rather than the gun's grip. The next thing the brunette knew, she was standing with Alexis's arm around her waist, the redhead pressed against her back and a gun poking against the side of her head. "So. Human shields. Something you're familiar with then?"

"Nope. Not that hard to figure out, though." Alexis gave a little tug on Kate's waist, gently guiding the brunette backward. While the hospital undoubtedly had other exits, it was an odd move given that the closest path to freedom was a short walk straight forward. Sure, the cops were between the redhead and- "Mister Bishop, your daughter's purse? And please don't cancel the plastic when you get home; I'm pretty sure I'd go broke in a week trying to keep her fed and clothed in the manner in which she's accustomed."

After looking back and forth between the police and the two teenage girls, Kate's father nodded before retrieving his daughter's purse from where it rested atop the uncomfortable plastic hospital seat beside the one she'd been occupying. Approaching them slowly, he waited for Kate to bow her head and then looped the strap around her neck. His eyes flicked back and forth between Kate and Alexis, and then he lowered his voice. "The only reason I'm not doing something incredibly stupid right now is because I know my daughter could kick your ass if she wanted to." Kate blinked; she hadn't realized her father thought so highly of the distinctly 'unfeminine' skills she'd been accumulating as of late. The validation was nice in a way. Poorly timed, but nice. "Who am I to stand in the way of… whatever she's planning for you?"

The quiet laugh that shook Alexis's body made Kate uncomfortably aware of how close she was to the girl she'd kissed earlier that night. "Hopefully nothing that'll get me in trouble with my girlfriend. Speaking of which, I'd back away if I were you. The last thing you need is for your foot to get teleported out when we leave while the rest of you stays here." Nodding rapidly, her father backed away, leaving Kate and Alexis alone in the center of the hospital lobby. "Gentlemen, m'lady. You will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Alexis! Nic! Constantín!"

Silence ensued.

Kate looked around.

One of the police officers coughed.

And then behind her, Alexis groaned. "Really, Amora? You couldn't just let me have my dramatic exit?"

A tinkling laugh echoed through the room, followed by a brilliant flash of yellowish-green light and a rough tugging sensation that yanked Kate down through the floor.


	6. Chapter 6

Joe's Note: For those of you who aren't deeply knowledgeable of the Marvel universe, the modern Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd didn't exist before the 'House of M' event… and Cassie was a few years younger before Wanda donkey punched reality. So when Amora talks about 'the witch' and her 'taint', that's what she's sensing. Billy and Cassie are but two of at least three characters who this will come up regarding…  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, Vi9, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

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><p>"Wait a minute. I… you kidnapped me to my own room?!"<p>

Chuckling, Alexis fell backward onto the California King size bed behind her, marveling at the fact that even when sprawled out in her best starfish imitation, she couldn't touch more than a single side of Kate's bed at once. While she and Amora enjoyed their creature comforts, even they didn't have something quite this outrageous in their apartment. Holstering the pistol she'd used to hold Kate hostage, she then tugged her rifle's strap up and over her head before stretching, reaching up until she could deposit the gun on the multitude of pillows Kate had scattered around the head of the bed. That done, the redhead propped herself up on her elbows. "Did we actually kidnap you? Technically speaking, I mean. Amora?"

As Kate's jaw dropped and she looked back and forth in disbelief, the blonde's fingers dipped into her cleavage and she pulled out an iPhone in a green hard case emblazoned in gold with arcane symbols. Pushing and holding the Home button, Amora waited for it to chirp twice before speaking. "Define kidnap."

"The definition of 'kidnap' is…" Siri paused for a moment before continuing. "…take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom."

Putting her phone back on standby, Amora returned it to her cleavage before gesturing to the room around her. "This is neither an undisclosed location, nor are we planning to ask for a ransom." She made her way over to the bed and seated herself next to the redhead's right shoulder, reaching out to run her fingers through Alexis's hair. "I do ask that you let Cassandra finish using your ensuite, though."

Kate's mouth abruptly closed as she shot a scowl at over at the closed bathroom door. Alexis regularly found herself wondering exactly how enhanced her senses were; the answer was evidently enough so that she'd heard the shower running while the brunette hadn't. "Wait, what? Who's Cassandra? Are you guys on a kidnapping spree or something? And why is she in my shower?"

"How many people do you have to kidnap before it's a spree? And remember, you technically don't count, what with not actually being kidnapped and all." Alexis laughed at the look of consternation on Kate's face before nodding toward the bathroom door. "Cassie's here for the same reason as you."

Making her way over to her dressing table, Kate bent forward at the waist and examined her reflection for a few seconds before sighing. Reaching up, she began pulling out the pins that kept her hair in the complicated updo she'd worn to the wedding, viciously driving each one into the mirror's wooden frame and making it shudder. "Really? Because I think I'd remember having a roommate."

God, was this how it'd felt to be Giles back when they were still in high school? If so, Alexis owed the man a present. Like, a car or a private jet or a trophy wife or something. Because real teenagers were annoying as hell these days. "Because we need to talk to her. And you." Kate peered back over her shoulder and opened her mouth, only to be cut off as Alexis answered the obviously forthcoming question. "About joining our team. Which I think we're going to have to call the Young Defenders, since someone beat us to the punch with Young Avengers. Although at the rate they're going, they'll either dissolve or get arrested in the next few days… so Young Avengers might still be a possibility for us."

Slowly straightening up, Kate turned to face them. "Ladies, you had my curiosity. But now you have my attention." Holding up a finger, she forestalled any elaboration on Alexis's part. "But before I let you distract me with this whole team thing of yours, though, as interesting as it may sound… Cassie. My shower. Why?"

"She reeked quite horribly of a combination of the subways and artificial vanilla body lotion. I'm not sure which of the two smells offended me more." Amora's free hand wandered into Alexis's field of vision as she gestured to the occupied bathroom. "You had an… adequate… selection of toiletries and so given that we were still waiting on you, I requested that she make herself more presentable before our discussion." The hand in Alexis's hair paused and then pulled away as Amora rose from the bed. "Now that I think about it, I've yet to deliver on my promise of clean clothes for her to wear when she's finished."

"I suppose this means you're going to stick with a theme and steal some of my clothes to go with you stealing my shampoo and stealing my shower? And stealing me and her?" Kate rolled her eyes when Amora simply shrugged before nodding, and then gestured to the nearby dresser. "Middle two drawers are fair game; it's all stuff left behind from when my friends have slept over. Touch one of my shirts - or my underwear - and it'll be on like Donkey Kong."

Amora tugged the upper of the aforementioned drawers open and began rifling through its contents. Eventually she emerged with a rather unremarkable t-shirt that she held up for Kate's inspection. After a shrug and a nod from the brunette, Amora shook it a few times, sending tendrils of yellowish-green eldritch energy racing through it. That was something Alexis was quite familiar with: as much as Amora loved to shop, she loved playing Barbie doll and creating her own outfits for people even more. Usually it was for Alexis, but tonight she had a new 'doll' to play with. As Alexis watched curiously, the fabric shifted from mundane grey cotton to blood red leather, acquiring a Y-shaped black design on the front even as the neckhole wriggled and widened into a portrait neckline. Almost as an afterthought, Amora added a silver zipper running down the front, presumably so she wouldn't need to magick it on and off of its eventual owner. "What do you think, Kate? Is it her?"

"How would I know, I've never even…" Kate trailed off as she looked back and forth between the modified shirt and the closed bathroom door, but then comprehension finally dawned and she snatched the top out of Amora's hands. After staring down at it for a few more seconds, she finally bubbled over. "Cassandra. Cassie. Cassandra 'Cassie' Lang, as in Scott Lang's daughter, as in you kidnapped an Avenger's daughter and brought her to my house?!"

"Well, you went two for four with that statement. Fifty percent accuracy isn't terrible, as long as we're not talking about a weapon." Amora returned to rummaging in Kate's dresser, eventually finding a pair of pajama pants that she magicked to be the same red leather as the top she'd created before adding black stripes running down the outsides of the legs. "The girl in question is in fact Scott Lang's daughter, but his recent death means that he is no longer an Avenger and therefore she is no longer an Avenger's daughter. Also, she came with me willingly, which means that she is no more kidnapped than you." Frowning, she peered down at the open drawers before looking back up at Kate. "Do I look somewhere else for homeless footwear?"

Groaning, Kate made her way over to the bed and threw herself face down on the mattress next to Alexis. "I've been kidnapped by an Asgardian lawyer and her trigger-happy girlfriend. Fuck my life."

Alexis snorted and rolled onto her side, patting Kate on the back. Not so much to comfort the girl as to distract her - and partially obstruct her view - as Amora wandered across the room and into the brunette's walk in closet. Which she was somewhat jealous of, especially now that her wardrobe was starting to consume some serious space, but not as jealous as she would have been if Kate had a Walken closet. Peanuts, in a bag. Wow. "FYI: you're down to twenty-five percent accuracy with that one. She's not an Asgardian or a lawyer, and I only shoot people who deserve it. I am her girlfriend, though."

"I… she's not?" Kate pushed herself up onto her forearms, furrowing her brow as she peered back over her shoulder. "I always thought she was. And where'd she go?"

"Raiding your shoes for something for Cassie, I'm assuming. Or something that can be transformed into shoes for Cassie." Alexis reached out, grabbing at Kate's arm as the brunette tried to rise from her prone position. "Worst case scenario: she finds your most expensive pair of shoes and cannibalizes them for raw matter to shape into a gift for Cassie. Is the cost of replacing them more than you'd be willing to pay to become a superheroine?" The brunette shook her head as she relaxed, lowering herself back onto the bed. "And Asgardians are from Asgard. Amora's from Vanaheim, which makes her a Vanaþegnar."

Breezing back out of the closet, Amora held up a pair of knee high black boots adorned with a handful of red streaks to break up the monotony. "I'm also an amazing cook, because I have certain standards of living and while Skurge was great for lifting heavy objects and killing my enemies, he was absolutely worthless domestically. Also, as you can see, an amateur fashion designer. I'd like to go pro, but I'm not sure where to start."

The answer came not from Kate or even Alexis, but from behind Amora. "Putting a bit more distance between you and your 'show up and fight the Avengers with the Executioner' phase would probably help open some doors for you. Just a thought. Putting that out there. Oh, or maybe Janet. She's always looking for apprentices." Cassie emerged from the bathroom clad in a very plain white bra and panties, toying with a pair of scissors. "Do you think I should cut my hair, Amora? I mean, I'm going to be a bit of a brawler. Having something that people can grab and pull seems like a bad idea…"

Kate rolled over with a groan before sitting up. "Oh, for the love of… never cut your own hair. Ever. Unless you have a buzz cut or something and all you need to do is run the clippers around in circles until it's the same length again." Scooting over to the edge of the bed, she spread her legs and then patted the space between them. "Come here. I'm no Oribe, but I think I can handle this. And while I work, Amora can tell us why we're here."

"If it's a bad idea to cut your own hair, I'm not even going to ask why you keep these in your bathroom." Crossing the room, Cassie paused in front of Kate as her gaze bounced back and forth between the brunette and her own nearly nude form. "Should I get dressed first? Or you get undressed? That looks like a really nice dress."

Sighing, Kate took the scissors from Cassie and placed them on the bed next to her before grabbing the blonde by the hips, spinning her a hundred and eighty degrees before yanking her down to sit between her legs. "If we cut your hair while you're dressed, you get hair on your new clothes. I don't care if I get hair on this because I'm planning to burn it as soon as I take it off. Literally." Reaching around, Kate pulled the hair tie off Cassie's wrist and yanked the blonde's hair back into a ponytail. "So. Amora. We're all here now. Explanation time."

Amora snapped her fingers, summoning a handful of dog-eared folders whose contents Alexis had memorized over the past few months. "To make a long story exceedingly short? I met Alexis through an organization that deals with magic and demonic threats not worth of Doctor Strange's attention. When it was time for us to leave, one of their seers gave us information about a number of young women who would make good superheroines. You're one, Kate, which is why we showed up at the cathedral rather than leaving things to the Young Avengers. Cassie is another. We have information on at least one more potential teammate, whose folder now makes a lot more sense after seeing what Wanda did to Cassie. Before we recruit her, though, I think it'd be a good idea to help Cassie activate her powers. Which means breaking into the remains of the Avengers Mansion to see if we can find more Pym Particles and her father's helmet."

"We're going to what?!" Caught off guard by the Amora's words, Kate's hand drifted a bit too far forward as she brought the scissors in to snip through Cassie's ponytail. And by a bit, Alexis was guesstimating roughly two or three inches, leaving behind just over an inch of blond hair as the bulk of Cassie's mane plummeted to land on Kate's lap. Silence descended, broken by a low growl as Cassie glared back over her shoulder at Kate. "…I can fix this."


	7. Chapter 7

Joe's Note: Times like this make me even more thankful to the people listed below than when I'm paying for my necessary medications, and I'm pretty damn thankful then. But as someone who works on the go and likes to write between other projects, it can be downright hellish to try and accurately reproduce scenes from the comics and then deviate from them when you can't afford to carry said comics… or spread out reference materials because you're working in Starbucks. With Marvel Unlimited, though, I have every single issue of _Young Avengers_ at my fingertips, so I can just hop to page nineteen of the second issue and off we go…  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, Vi9, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

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><p>"Oh my God."<p>

"What?"

"This is it. This is where my dad died." Taking a step closer to the crater, Cassie dropped to her knees and inspected the charred earth more closely. "They told me and my mom that Jack of Hearts had come back; everyone thought he was dead, so my dad ran out to see if he was okay. And Jack of Hearts… he exploded. They said my dad died instantly. That he didn't feel any pain. But I…"

Alexis opened and closed her mouth several times helplessly as Kate sank to her knees beside Cassie and wrapped her arms around the blonde, not quite sure how to respond. She'd had to comfort Slayers - technically fellow Slayers now - when one of their own had died, but for all their talk of 'sisterhood'? They weren't. Well, the Phan twins were, but everyone else? They were just girls united by a common cause. Losing one's blood was something else entirely, especially in such a violent way. And… wait. What was Amora doing? Making her way over to Cassie, Amora crouched down and placed her hand on the smaller blonde's shoulder. "Your father is not gone, little one, not truly. The Ragnarok cycle has not yet been broken, and so when Valhalla returns? He will be among the einherjar, battling by day and feasting with the valkyries by night."

Much to Alexis's surprise, Cassie did in fact seem to find that comforting, sniffling softly as she peered up at Amora. "Do you really think so?"

Amora nodded decisively before pausing and shrugging. "Well, he'll either be an einherjar or find a way to slip Death's grasp and return to you. If it's the latter, you'll get to be with him again. If it's the former… well, I know a few people. I'm fairly certain that you'll at least be allowed to visit him. Who knows, maybe he'll meet the right woman at a feast one night and you'll actually end up with one decent step-parent?"

Was telling Cassie that her father might rise from the grave reassuring or creepy? For that matter, was it any more or less creepy than the idea of post-mortem dating? Before Alexis could ponder either question too deeply, she found herself reacting to the warning being screamed at her by her preternatural senses, lunging out of the way as tendrils of electricity licked at the spot she'd just been occupying. Slipping into the shadows, the redhead watched with narrow eyes as the idiots from the cathedral came in for a landing in the spot that she'd formerly occupied. Or rather, three of the four idiots. Iron 'Lad' was missing. Showing an absolutely appalling grasp of tactics and situational awareness, Patriot didn't even glance in Alexis's direction as he began walking toward where Cassie, Kate, and Amora were. "I don't know how you kids got in here, but you're going to have to leave. This is private property."

"Yes it is. And this is Ant-Man's daughter. She actually lived here before… everything. We're here because she wants to recover some of her things that got left behind." Kate rose to her feet before offering Cassie a hand up as well, raising an eyebrow as she gestured from the blonde to Patriot and back. "So… now who's trespassing?"

"And even if we had no right to be here, do you presume yourself capable of stopping me?" With Kate and Cassie between herself and the incoming Young Avengers, Amora managed to catch them off-guard as she rose from her crouch. Stepping around the pair of teenage girls, she sneered as she looked each of the Young Avengers up and down slowly. "I have fought the real Avengers, both on my own and with allies. Compared to them, you're just precocious little children playing dress up."

It was rapidly becoming apparent to Alexis that St. Patrick's Cathedral was the rule rather than the exception with the Young Avengers: they rushed in blindly and then were left flailing helplessly when contact with the enemy rendered their plan useless. The trio exchanged uncertain looks for several seconds after Amora's challenge, and then Patriot drew himself up and stepped forward to confront her. "Thing is? You may have fought the Avengers, but you never beat them. And if they can beat you, so can we."

Quite skilled at adding insult to injury, Amora cracked a smile and then outright laughed in Patriot's face. "Can you, now? With what? Your missing time traveller? Your alien hybrid child? Wanda's son? Or perhaps you believe yourself a capable challenger, thanks to the drugs that flow through your veins?" Holding Patriot's gaze until the blue-clad boy looked away, Amora shook her head. "I thought not. The only one among you who poses the slightest threat to me is Wanda's son, and even he…" Trailing off, she thrust her hand out and loosed a bolt of yellowish-green magic that slammed into Asgardian and turned him into… a younger version of Scarlet Witch? It was one of the longtime Avenger's skimpier costumes, too, albeit with a translucent red bodystocking beneath it to preserve a bit of the boy-cum-girl's modesty. "Unless you're planning to have Crimson Curse here seduce us into submission, I'm not sure she's the heavy hitter that you think she is…"

While the angle kept Alexis from getting a good look at her face, the newly-made girl's reply said it all. "I want to be a boy again, I want to be a boy again, I want to be a boy again!" When nothing happened, 'Crimson Curse' slumped in defeat for a few seconds before looking back up at Amora. "How..?"

Amora slipped past Patriot and closed the distance between them, reaching up to pat Crimson Curse's cheek condescendingly. "Darling, I told you. I've taken on the Avengers before. You may be Wanda's child, but you are no Wanda Maximoff. Yet."

"Okay, well, while this is legitimately funny and cheering my depressed self up and all? I'm fourteen and have a curfew to match. So I'm going to go grab…" Turning and heading for the mansion as she talked, Cassie trailed off as Patriot broke away from the others and gave chase, grabbing her by the arm. The blonde looked down at the gloved hand wrapped around her left forearm before slowly meeting Patriot's gaze. "Okay, you're gonna want to take your hand off me if you want to keep it, Wannabucky."

"The name's Patriot. And I know you don't have powers; otherwise, you'd be on Iron Lad's list."

The corner of Cassie's mouth quirked up. "You're right, I don't." Wrapping her right hand around Patriot's forearm, Cassie grunted as she pivoted and executed a textbook sweeping hip throw. The taller boy hit the ground at her feet, the air exploding from his lungs in a pained wheeze. "But I did grow up around some incredibly kick ass women who used me to indulge their maternal urges. Like Carol and her judo lessons."

From beside the Young Avenger's new Wanda-alike came a remarkably unmasculine giggle. "That. Was. Awesome." All attention turned to Hulkling, who at least had the decency to blush a darker shade of green at the scrutiny. "What? It was! I'm not going to root for him when he's being a dick; even if Cassie wasn't an Avenger's daughter, we don't have any more right to be here than you four do." Pausing, he looked around nervously. "And I just realized that we've lost someone. Um, hello? Redback? Please don't be in a tree ready to snipe me. This wasn't my idea. Honest."

Alexis rolled her eyes at that; she'd taken out a few murderous thugs to save their hostages, not gone on a shooting spree at a crowded mall or something. Stepping back out into the soft light provided by the moon and Manhattan's intense light pollution, she raised her hands in surrender. "Nobody is going to get shot, although Patriot might get his ass kicked some more by Cassie if he keeps running his mouth." Possibly Kate, too; the brunette definitely had some anger to work out and he would make a good target for it. Making her way over to Amora, she took up her customary position in front of the blonde, leaning back into her as Amora's hands came up to rest on her shoulders. "Like Kate said, we're just here to pick up some things that got left behind when they closed up the mansion. So if everyone will just calm down…"

"Or not." Climbing slowly to his feet, Patriot opened one of the pouches on his belt and withdrew a collapsable baton, extending it with a flick of his wrist. "Because you know what I think? I think that you are trespassing. If there was stuff here that you were supposed to have, you wouldn't need to sneak in during the middle of the night. They would let you in. You'd be trending on Facebook as people post their cell phone pictures and try to figure out why Captain America or Iron Man or one of the other Avengers on the new team is escorting you in like the guest you're supposed to be. Instead, here we are. That says to me that you're up to something. Something that you know you're not supposed to be doing. So why do don't you go home, and we won't take the kid gloves off?"

…did he not remember that she had blown someone's head off and that her girlfriend has transgendered one of his teammates? Alexis let her hands drift down to the holsters on the outsides of her thighs, undoing the safety straps keeping her twin pistols in place. But before things could come to blows - or more accurately, bullets and bolts of magic - Cassie let out a loud growl and took a step closer to Patriot. "I'm not going anywhere. My father was an Avenger. This was his home. And one weekend a month, it was mine, too. Now he's dead. And all I have left of him is inside that mansion. So, I don't who you are or what powers you have! I'm not leaving without what we came here for!"

As she stared up at the twenty-two foot tall girl in front of her, trying her hardest to focus on Cassie's flushed face and not her oversized heaving chest, Alexis found herself wondering if the blonde was wedded to 'Ant-Girl'. Because picking Amora's brain for the name of a famous - or infamous - frost giant suddenly appealed. They could be the Young Masters; take on personas based off of assorted inactive villains as an ironic, redemption sort of thing. There was an evil Black Widow, so she was still covered. Amora was her own villain, really. Kate, they still didn't know quite what they were going to do with but that just gave them more options. And then a bit of glamoury could turn Cassie into a faux-jötunn, maybe with a leather and fur-centric costume that looked suitably Norse?

Before Alexis could give voice to her thoughts, several more figures came rushing out of the ruins of the Avengers Mansion. Iron Lad was accompanied by Iron Man, which both surprised the redhead and confirmed her suspicions: the Young Avengers were trying to scare them off because they didn't want to risk losing access to the clubhouse they'd illegally claimed. Between them was Captain America himself, and a remarkably ordinary-looking brunette brought up the rear. "Well, this promises to complicate everything needlessly."

"Not necessarily. Tony Stark leads the Avengers these days, and he has a critical weakness that you're uniquely equipped to exploit, darling." Alexis peered up at her girlfriend curiously, Amora smirking as she reached around to tug at the zipper that ran down the front of the redhead's catsuit. Stopping at a point between Alexis's breasts, the blonde took a moment to none too subtly adjust the goods before making an approving noise. "That looks better."

Alexis sighed and rolled her eyes as she turned her attention forward once more, trying her hardest to ignore the hands that continued to fiddle with her catsuit… and breasts. "This is your grand plan? You want me to distract Iron Man with my breasts?"

"Why not? You manage to distract me with them all the time."

"Well, there is that small problem of me being wanted by the police for what I did at the cathedral. And we're probably both wanted for kidnapping Kate."

"…we have your breasts, my breasts, and Kate's breasts? I'd rather not pull Cassie into this; that would just bring attention to the fact that she's currently a giant."

Sigh.


	8. Chapter 8

Joe's Note: This is where we find ourself veering off into even more of an alternate universe than before, because… well, one of the two founding members of the new group is in fact a very grey character. Even if she's going to be nominally helpful to society as a whole, Amora is still Amora and enjoys fucking with people she doesn't like. And she doesn't like at least two members of the original Young Avengers. Jury's still out on Teddy. Billy, on the other hand…  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Vi9, Alex, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

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><p>"Just out of curiosity, do we really need to steal your dad's costumes?" Alexis let out a sigh as the girls flanking her both came to an abrupt half, forcing the redhead to make an impatient beckoning gesture. "Walk and talk, girls, we don't have all day. Especially if Cap and Iron Man call in reinforcements against Amora. But no, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be here or anything. I'm just saying that we don't really need his costumes. The spells Amora cast on that outfit held up to Cassie's growth, and it's a lot more fashionable than some of what I've seen in pictures of Ant-Man. No offense, Cassie."<p>

Letting out a little giggle, Cassie slipped past Alexis and made her way down the hall to a specific door. Thankfully it was on the right side of the hallway, given that the left side was open to the night air courtesy of… Alexis wasn't entirely sure. It was a bit too clean to have been the explosion that killed Cassie's dad, but it just as clearly not the product of a controlled demolition. Crouching down, Cassie quickly pried the bottom off the keypad next to her door of choice, hooking up some sort of complicated electronic device. "None taken. Mostly because my dad inherited them from Hank, and Hank is somehow the most unfashionable husband of a fashionista in the history of clothing."

Alexis snorted as she leaned against the intact wall, watching as Cassie worked. Personally, she'd never understood that one either. Janet was hot and fashionable while her husband was… very much neither. Maybe he was an amazing fuck or something? Or… wait, no, Janet had money to spare so it wasn't even as if she was a sugarbaby to a spandex-clad sugardaddy. Hmm. As the redhead contemplated that, Kate tapped her shoulder before sidling up on her left. "Like you said, we don't have all day. So while Cassie takes care of her business, I'm going raiding. Who knows what kind of swag got left behind here when the Avengers moved out?"

Before Alexis could point out exactly why that was a terrible idea, Cassie did it for her. "Just putting this out there… the door locks are jammed up but that doesn't mean the entire security system here is dead."

"Yeah? And?"

"Lasers."

"YOLO."

As Kate wandered off to explore the rest of the mansion's living quarters - or rather, what remained of them - Alexis turned her attention back to Cassie, just in time to see the door slowly swing open as the device in the blonde's hands glowed green. Letting out a little victory cheer, Cassie detached her gear and then scampered into the room, Alexis following behind a bit more sedately. Once inside, Cassie became a veritable pinball, bouncing around the room in search of… something. Her first guess involved the closet, which revealed an orderly row of red and black costumes but not her quarry based on the soft growl she made. She then moved on to a series of boxes, going from largest to medium but skipping the smallest, followed by certain dresser drawers but not others, giving Alexis a sense for roughly how big of a something the blonde was looking for. But before Alexis could ask for specifics as to where else the elusive Ant-Man helmet might be so that she could join in the hunt, Cassie skidded across the floor on her knees, peeked under the dust-covered bed, sneezed, and then growled again before slamming her fist against the floor. "It's not here."

And this was why she hated running a mission with little to no intel. See also, half the shit that Willow dragged Kennedy and her subordinate Slayers into. But what was done was done and so instead of complain about it, Alexis instead wandered over to the open closet. After studying the contents for a few seconds, she nodded decisively and began pulling Scott's costumes off their hangers. Even if they didn't need them, per se, Amora would probably enjoy studying the material that mortals used to cloth a size shifter so that she could improve her enchantments on Cassie's clothes. Or she could reshape them into new outfits for Cassie, giving the blonde something that was both useful and a memento of her late father. "I'm supposedly in charge, but this trip was all about you. What do you want to do now?"

"We see how much of his stuff I can cram into a box or two. Maybe come back again another time for the rest. Can't bring too much into my house at once, Mom and Blake might notice. The costumes are coming now, obviously. I mean, this outfit is cool and all but I can't wear it every day. This way, I have something to run around in on wash days without having to ask your girlfriend to make me an entire wardrobe. And…" Taking the costumes from Alexis, Cassie stuffed them into the top of one of the larger - and emptier - boxes, creating a nest that she then filled with glowing blue vaccine bottles retrieved from the top of Scott's dresser. "Since we don't know whether or not outside was a fluke, I'm taking these with me too. I'd make a pretty terrible size shifter if I couldn't shift sizes." Thank you, Captain Obvious. "Speaking of which…"

Raising one eyebrow, Alexis watched as Cassie trotted back over to the dresser and grabbed a needle in one hand and an orphan bottle of what the redhead assumed were Pym Particles in the other. "Cassie? What are you doing?"

Cassie smirked as she stuck the needle through the top of the bottle, filling it with the glowing blue mixture inside before injecting it into the crook of her elbow with practiced ease. "What, this? Oh, just a bit of preparation for the conversation I'm about to have with someone about taking things that aren't theirs. Because if my dad's helmet isn't sitting in storage somewhere with a Stark Industries sign on it, I'll eat one of those catsuits." She took a few deep breaths, tossed the bottle to Alexis for safekeeping, and then went charging out the door before leaping through the destroyed outer wall… and hitting the ground at ten feet tall and climbing. "Hey, Mister Stark! Do you have time to talk to me now?!"

"So. Um. She's not quite the Hulk, but she's definitely got some anger management issues, doesn't she?" Peering around the doorframe, Kate gestured for Alexis to join her before turning her attention back to the action outside, letting out a low whistle as Cassie picked up Iron Man in her giant hands and began shaking him while shouting questions at him. Alexis let out a low hum of agreement as she joined Kate in the doorway before shooting a glance over at the brunette, looking her up and down slowly. When Kate noticed the inspection, she stretched her arms up over her head and posed for Alexis's consideration. "You like?"

Did she like… what? Kate's outfit? It was cute enough in a very Faith sort of way; all sleek and leather in a dark shade of purple. Amora had probably drawn her inspiration from Faith when creating it for the young brunette, given they looked very similar. Kate herself? Also cute, but Alexis found it difficult to find girls 'her own age' attractive without feeling like a pedophile given that she was actually twice their age on the inside. The Yankees' chances this season? Fuck the Yankees; Xander had been a Dodgers fan and Alexis was a Red Sox fan just because… fuck the Yankees, that's why. But presumably Kate was asking for the redhead's opinion of her haul, and so Alexis let her eyes roam over the brunette again. Mockingbird's mask and battle staves. If Kate knew how to use them, it would give the growing team some desperately needed melee capability. Hawkeye's bow and a quiver full of arrows. That… was interesting. Alexis knew from her years with the Council that the bow could be a very lethal weapon in the right person's hands. Was Kate the right person? That remained to be seen. A sword taken from somewhere; Alexis could think of at least two Avengers who used them as primary weapons and so she couldn't be certain who the previous owner was. And… "Is that Black Widow's belt?"

Kate glanced down at it before meeting Alexis's eyes and smirking. "Belt… made out of gold discs… center one is red with a black hourglass on it… nope. Think I got this from Miss Marvel's room."

…and that was the other reason Alexis tried to stay away from real teenagers. They were all obnoxious, sarcastic little shit sticks these days. Sighing, the redhead held her hand out. "Gimme." Kate's eyebrows rose at the request and she took a step backward. "The belt. Give me the belt. You can keep the rest, but letting you run around with that creates brand confusion. We need to have distinct separation between Redback and… Hawkingbird. Or whatever you end up calling yourself."

"Can it wait until we get home? I'm kinda using it to hold my pants up. You would not believe some of the shit I found in the Pyms' room…"

Oh for fuck's sake…

* * *

><p>"Get down!"<p>

"Now we just have to take his guns away."

"Impossible. Kang's transtemporal armor allows him to pull any weapon in history out of the timestream."

Peering out around the side of the stone block that he'd taken up shelter behind, Xander tried to figure out what to do next. To say that things weren't going as planned was pretty much the biggest understatement in the history of understatements… and took considerable doing when the entirety of their plan had been 'go to the Avengers Mansion, get some stuff, and then go home'. The arrival of one or more of the Avengers was a possibility that Xander had actually anticipated; the chances of sneaking in and out of their former home without tripping some sort of alarm had been somewhere around the range of 'ice cube in hell' in his mind. The ensuing attack on Amora was pretty much a no brainer as well, given her history with the group. Cassie forcibly enlarging herself using her father's supply of Pym Particles and using Iron Man to smack Cap away from Amora… a bit out of left field, but funny as hell. That had brought about a pretty quick ceasefire, as the Avengers realized that the woman capable of handling them while outnumbered now had an ally… and then things had really gone to shit.

While Xander had lacked the entire story when the shit initially hit the fan, he now knew enough to get by. 'Iron Lad' was really the teenage version of Kang the Conqueror, an even more infamous Avengers villain than the one he was dating. He'd come back in time to try and make a positive name for himself after meeting his older self because hey, what could possibly go wrong with messing with one's own past? That had in turn brought Kang - adult Kang - back to retrieve young Kang, out of what seemed like legitimate and genuine concern for the integrity of the timestream. Young Kang had been understandably unenthusiastic about that prospect, fighting had ensued, and now? Now Manhattan was a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the Avengers were down for the count, and Xander was back to his middle-aged male self thanks to the whacky timestream hijinks that they were trying to undo.

Perhaps surprisingly, Xander was not at all happy to be Xander once more instead of Alexis. It meant that not only did he lack the Slayer abilities he'd come to rely on, but his hand-eye coordination was shot to shit thanks to his eye disappearing again. And Amora had disappeared into thin air at some point during the timestream realignment, meaning that he couldn't even rely on her to cast that rather handy spell of hers and turn him into Mad-Eye Moody for the duration of the fight. Thankfully, Kate and Cassie had actually witnessed his rather painful transition from redheaded teenage girl to battered thirty-odd male and were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, while the Young Avengers needed them too much to argue. With his physical age once more matching his mental one, Xander had quickly seized control of the formerly divided teens and united them under his command. "If the weapons come from the transtemporal armor, the obvious move is to take his armor out of the equation and then go from there. Kate, seeing as how my aim isn't what it used to be…"

It took the brunette a moment to catch on and then she grinned, pulling an arrow from the quiver on her back and nocking it. As she raised the bow and took aim, Hulking decided it was a great time to challenge her competency. "Quick question. Have you ever used one of those before?"

"Every summer at Interlochen Arts Camp. She also plays the cello."

"Every summer at Interlochen Arts Camp. I also play the cello." Kate loosed the arrow with a vicious grin, and Xander watched it fly straight and true to hit its mark: a slightly recessed point on Kang's armor that the time traveller had fingered at least twice during the battle so far to various effect. The next arrow hit the center of his belt, sending tendrils of purple lightning licking outward in every direction for several seconds, ending only when Kang wrenched his helmet and armor off and threw it down onto the ground. Turning to Xander, Kate raised an eyebrow. "How did you..?"

Xander shrugged as he stared down contemplatively at the Glock 17 in his left hand - the bigger brother of the Glock 26 he'd been carrying as Alexis - and the full magazine in his right. While he hadn't been confident of his ability to hit a moving target in the middle of a hectic battle, a shieldless and disarmed Kang was another story entirely. Especially given how prone the villain was to monologuing. If that's what things came to, it was a burden he was more than willing to shoulder, especially if the alternative was blood on a teenager's hands. Slapping the clip in, he pulled back on the slide to chamber a round and then met Kate's curious gaze. "We took down the kidnappers for obvious reasons. You didn't really think the kiss and that one shot were really the only reasons we decided to stick around, did you?"

After a moment's consideration, Kate shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, I've been told I'm an amazing kisser."

Opening his mouth to reply, Xander was brought up short as Patriot dove out of cover and went rushing past. "Let's take him down, guys! Without his armor, Kang's-"

"Powerless?" Kang sneered as he caught the incoming fist and squeezed hard, halting Patriot's momentum long enough for the time traveller to bring his knee up into the boy's stomach. Patriot folded in half and then collapsed to the ground at Kang's feet. "You underestimate me, child."

Stepping out from behind his cover, Xander held the pistol loosely at his side as he slowly closed in on Kang. "No, Patriot does. For the record? He's also the one who got thrown around by Cassie tonight before she realized she had powers. The rest of us know you're a threat, and are going to treat you like one." Xander brought his gun up, taking a two-handed grip as he sighted on center mass. "All the way to the end of the fight, if we need to."


	9. Chapter 9

Joe's Note: I'd like to think that having a slightly older and more mature problem-solver available might have caused the events of the first arc of _Young Avengers_ to unfold a bit differently. Again, this is heavily referenced from the comics but with certain changes made to accommodate the differing cast. As for the last bit… she was always slated to appear, but I realized as I wrapped up things with Kang that I could give her a slightly more fun introduction than I was initially planning.  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Chris, Vi9, Alex, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

><p>"You've destroyed my armor, stranded me at this moment in history, and left me no means by which to restore the timestream." Releasing Patriot's fist, Kang looked Xander up and down slowly took a step away from the injured boy, eventually slumping as he shook his head slowly. "Why not kill me? You can't possibly do more damage to the timestream. To your world. Look at it."<p>

Yeah, they certainly had a problem on their hands, Xander was willing to admit that much. He assumed that the Avengers had tried to call for backup, and yet nobody else had arrived to fight Kang. Nothing about that implied anything the least bit good. Beyond that, the city was a mess for as far as he could see and the sky was a toxic cloud. Hell, he'd gone and shifted ages and genders for no apparent reason, meaning anything could happen to any of them at any moment. Cassie was the most at risk, given that she was the daughter of one of the absentee Avengers, but if the timestream was rippling from the point where the team had first encountered Kang? None of them were safe. The smallest change to history could result in massive changes to their present, and undoing Kang's ongoing feud with the Avengers was no minor change. Then Xander realized something, and his eye narrowed. "You're no more protected from what's going on than we are now that your armor is gone. And you're still here. If all of this is because there's two Kangs occupying one moment in time… all we really need to do is send you home."

"But…"

Shaking his head, Xander flicked off the safety on his Glock. "No buts. I'm not going to argue that his coming back didn't affect the timestream, but Iron Lad being here didn't turn the city into this. You coming back after him did. If he really did manage to avoid becoming Kang in the future, you'd have disappeared. You're still here. That means he isn't the problem, you are. So as far as I see it, you have two choices: you go back, or I put you down. Either way, we only have one Kang and the world fixes itself. If it doesn't, we're no worse off than we are right now."

Kang stared at Xander almost petulantly for several seconds before turning and gesturing to his wrecked armor with an exasperated sigh. "And how would you suggest I do that? You let Hawkeye destroy my only means of leaving this time."

"Hawkeye? Is that actually my codename in the future, or are you just calling me that because of the bow?"

"Focus, Kate." Even if learning about one's supposed future wasn't fraught with peril on general principle, they had bigger things to worry about at the moment. With only one eye to work with, Xander was forced to gesture vaguely in the direction of where the Young Avengers had stripped down Iron Lad, hoping to use his armor against Kang as the boy fled to safety. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but… Patriot actually had a good idea earlier. Kang, Young You's version of the armor has Vision's programming in it. We can activate it and have Vision control the armor long enough to open up a portal and send you home. That way, the armor is still here for Young You so that he can go back to the future when it's time."

Kang's brow furrowed as he thought about that for almost a minute, and then finally he threw his hands up in surrender. "This is an entirely terrible idea, but if it's this or my life… I just hope you're willing to live with whatever the results of your actions may be. Because I am not the only one in my time - or others - who can traverse the timestream. Having the boy here may open you to dangers you've never experienced before."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Xander took a step to the side and then gestured with his pistol. "Any sign of funny business, and you'll be rolling through Vision's portal in a wheelchair. Understand?" Kang gave a stiff nod before walking forward, only to stop as Xander reached out to keep the man from passing. "Wait. Hawkeye. You recognized Kate. Your younger self's team is a new ripple in the timestream, but mine isn't, is it?"

The corner of Kang's mouth quirked upward and then he gave a begrudging nod. "You're very perceptive. Evidently, there's a reason that Alexis NicConstantín's enemies referred to her as the One Who Sees. What of it?"

"Simple. If my team is supposed to exist while Iron Lad's isn't, which will cause more ripples in the timestream: the Young Avengers responding to any given crime, or me and my girls responding to the same crime?" Xander smirked as understanding dawned on Kang; this was easier than manipulating the teenage Slayers into doing their homework, Xander mused. Maybe 'time traveling villain' was the profession you got into in the future when you weren't qualified for anything better? "So I was thinking that maybe Amora and I could go out of our way to make sure that people in your era never even hear about Iron Lad and his friends… if you'd be willing to make a hop or two through the timestream for us after you got home and threw on some new armor. You know, tilt things in our favor a bit so we have an easier time of outshining the Young Avengers."

"I'm listening…"

* * *

><p>Alexis dropped to her hands and knees as her stomach heaved, and then vomited noisily all over the pristine green grass beneath her. Again and again, her stomach sought to void itself until nothing remained, leaving her gasping for breath. Tipping over onto her side, she stared up at the few stars she could see through Manhattan's light pollution and groaned. "Someone make a note for me: never, ever eat Chipotle before having your body rearranged twice by ripples in the timestream. Actually, strike that. Never eat anything before that. Because holy crap, that sucked."<p>

"I'd greatly appreciate it if you could keep from tampering with the timestream again whatsoever, if it's all the same to you." Lowering herself so that a knee rested on either side of her girlfriend's head, Amora leaned over the supine redhead and reached down to run her fingers through Alexis's hair. Which - as best Alexis could tell by the way Amora's touch caused the strands to move and tug against her scalp - was back to its full on Merida mess for some bizarre reason. Fucking time travel shenanigans. "I somehow ended up back in pre-Ragnarok Asgard, drinking tea with Loki and Frigga as we discussed arcane matters. It was hideously boring. And I was back in my old clothing, which I now realize were quite the fashion disaster."

Snorting, Alexis spent a few more seconds basking in the attention that Amora was paying to her hair and scalp - even after months as a girl, it still felt almost sinfully good to her - before carefully sitting up so that she didn't drive her forehead into the blonde's chin. "You were wearing ugly clothes to a tea party while we were trying to figure out how to keep reality as we know it from unraveling. What a terrible ordeal."

Amora let out an affronted huff before rising to her feet and yanking Alexis upright beside her. "It was. Frigga was just as stiff and boring as usual, and Loki was even more pretentious than I remember her being. And those tights made my thighs look like those of a Kronan."

Opening her mouth to reply, Alexis paused at the unexpected pronoun in reference to the very male Avengers villain before deciding that she really didn't want to know. Instead, she looked to her left and then her right as Kate and Cassie formed up next to them, the remaining two boys and one girl of the Young Avengers forming a separate clump several yards away. Even further from them were Captain America, Iron Man, and their brunette companion, who appeared to be having a harder time recovering from the realignment of the timestream, but the redhead knew they were enjoying a temporary respite at best from the aggression they'd showed Amora. "So now what? And…" She glanced over at where the pseudo-Vision was still hovering, equidistant between their group and the Young Avengers. "What are we supposed to do with him?"

"What is it? And why does it look like Vision?"

"Vision's operating system piloting Iron Lad's armor. Have no idea where Iron Lad is; they sent him off to Asgardian's place and I don't know where that is. Apart from 'the Upper East Side'."

"Ah. We'll take it with us for now; it can follow Crimson Curse home to its owner when we're done with her." Taking a step forward, Amora raised her voice so it carried across the lawn to where the Young Avengers were. And it was only then that Alexis noticed that Asgardian was indeed back to looking like a young version of the Scarlet Witch, unlike during the battle with Kang. Which actually made a lot of sense: with Amora stuck in Asgard during the ripple, the blonde never would have met Asgardian and transformed him… but now that things were restored, the effects of her pre-battle spell casting had snapped back into place. "Assuming, of course, that young Miss Maximoff would like to get turned back into Asgardian anytime in the near future?"

The boy-turned-girl let out an incredulous laugh at that. "You're joking, right? Why would I go anywhere with you? You're a notorious Avengers villain, both you and your girlfriend are wanted for questioning by the NYPD because of what happened at the cathedral, and… well, what's to stop you from magicking me into thinking I'm supposed to be your live-in maid or something?"

Amora and Alexis exchanged looks at that; the idea obviously hadn't occurred to the blonde, but now that it was… "What's to stop me from doing that right here and now?"

"You have a point there." Asgardian glanced first at Hulkling, then at Patriot, and finally down at her delicate and feminine hands. Letting out a noisy sigh, she trudged her way over to where Amora and Alexis were standing before meeting Amora's eyes with a fierce glare. "Fine. But if I end up in a red maid's outfit, I'm going to break so many of your valuables…"

Letting out a throaty chuckle, Amora reached out and brushed her fingers over the young brunette's cheek playfully. "So we have a deal, then? You in a red maid's outfit in exchange for permission to break my belongings? Because I can always repair them with magic after you leave."

As interesting as the mental image was, Alexis decided she should probably intervene before the brunette could give Amora any more interesting ideas… or the Avengers recovered and attacked the blonde sorceress again. "How about a little less flirting and a lot more teleporting? Because I'm pretty sure that you going another round with the Avengers will make Cassie miss her curfew."

Amora let out an aggrieved sigh and rolled her eyes before finally nodding in agreement. "Very well. Everybody gather in close." She suited actions to words, letting her hand drop away from Crimson Curse's face and making a crooking motion. Once Teen Vision was floating his way over to them, she used one arm to pull Alexis close as the other wrapped around Crimson Curse's waist. Cassie quickly latched on to Amora and after the slightest hesitation, Kate pressed herself against Alexis's back and wrapped her own arm around the redhead. "I seem to recall being able to teleport people without touching them earlier, but far be it from me to complain about this sort of treatment."

Before anyone could react, there was a bright flash of yellowish-green light and a downward tugging sensation as Amora teleported the sextet away.

* * *

><p>"This is my fight song, take back my life song, prove I'm alright song. My power's turned on, starting right now I'll be strong. I'll play my fight song, and I don't really care if nobody else believes… cuz I've still got a lot of fight left in me!"<p>

Strange, Kate thought with a frown as she pulled away from Alexis, she didn't remember leaving music playing when they'd set out for the Avengers Mansion. Especially not an amateur hour a cappella station on Pandora, or whatever this was. Looking to her right, her frown grew. Her laptop was on her desk. Closed. That meant there was someone in her room singing. And given that Susan was off on her honeymoon, and her step-mother Heather couldn't carry a tune in a bucket? That should have eliminated all of the possible suspects. Edging her way out and around the clump formed by the rest of the girls - and Vision - Kate caught sight of the interloper… and she did not recognize the girl at all. "Who the hell are you?"

It was a very valid question in Kate's opinion, especially given that the girl was wearing one of Kate's favorite t-shirts, a pair of black sleep shorts that may or may not have also belonged to the brunette, and her sixteen hundred dollar Sennheiser headphones as she danced around the room and sang. A small, vain part of Kate pointed out that the girl was rather pretty and would have fit in nicely with the plastic, Stepford group of friends she kept in her orbit at school: strawberry blonde hair, light brown eyes bordering on amber, smooth skin a shade or two lighter than Kate's current tanned look, and a body that was neither too skinny nor curvy enough to incite jealousy and the accompanying backstabbing. Her inspection came to an abrupt end as the girl spun around, letting out a squeal as she caught sight of them and sliding the headphones down around her neck. "Oh hey, you guys are back! And Kate, I thought you said these were good headphones? I'm not exactly the 'go deaf by twenty' type, but the maximum volume on these things is shit."

"That's because you're supposed to plug them into decent audio equipment, not your iPhone. They sound great connected to my stereo." Stepping forward, Kate gently lifted them up and over the blonde's head, wrapping them around her own neck as she waited for the girl to disconnect them from her phone. The girl's face was pretty too, Kate idly noted, especially the light spray of brown freckles that ran from one cheek across her nose to the other. Then Kate remembered who she was staring at - a random stranger who had somehow gotten into her room while they were gone and was behaving far too familiarly - and both defending her HD800s and evaluating the girl's looks took a back seat to… "So again, who the hell are you?"

Awkward silence descended as the girl looked around beseechingly. "It's me, Rachel. I mean, I've never met Mini-Wanda or Teen Vision before either and so I get why they don't recognize me, but… Cassie?" The blonde shrugged helplessly before shaking her head. "Kate? Really? You don't recognize your own girlfriend?"

…wait, what?


	10. Chapter 10

Joe's Note: If you don't come to my stories to actually be told a story, this is a chapter you might want to skip. It's quite heavy on the exposition, and will covers such topics as Amora's comments to Billy and Cassie, timestream shenanigans, and how 'Rachel' fits into… well, everything. And who she is for that matter, since nobody seems to recognize her despite her appearing in the comics at her mother's side as far back as 1987.  
><span>Dedications &amp; Thanks:<span> To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Emily, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Pat, Vi9, Chris, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patreon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

><p>"Kate? Really? You don't recognize your own girlfriend?" There was a long, incredibly awkward pause and then the girl that Alexis recognized only from the handful of pictures in a folder sitting on her nightstand burst out laughing. "Oh God. Oh. My. God. The look on your face right now is so hilarious, I can't even. Wait. Wait. Hang on." Raising her iPhone, Rachel quickly snapped a picture before turning the phone so that Kate could see the screen. "That. That is your face right now."<p>

As Cassie indulged in a giggle at her new teammate's expense, Kate scowled and reached up, batting at the phone that was hovering in front of her face. "I'm so glad that I amuse you, Rachel. Really, I am." Her swats grew rougher as Rachel continued to grin and hold the phone in place, until eventually she conceded defeat and took a step back, crossing her arms over her chest. "Just so we're a hundred and ten percent clear, though… we're not dating, right?"

Rachel Carpenter rolled her eyes as she lowered her iPhone, pushing the sleep button with her thumb before tucking her phone into the pocket of her shorts. "Of course we're not dating, Kate. I have standards." Alexis bit her lip to avoid loosing a laugh that born of incredulity but which probably would have been misinterpreted by Kate. Mostly because… if not for the fact that Kate was half her mental age, and therefore it would have made the redhead feel like a bit of a pedophile? Alexis definitely would have… likely struck out with the brunette, but she at least would have made a pass. Quite possibly with both Amora's blessing and her assistance; the Asgardian had made it quite clear to Alexis that she was willing to include a third person in their relationship if they found someone worthy of their attention. The only real question was whether or not Amora would see Kate as such. Alexis had never bothered to ask. Young and all. "I mean, you're pretty and I'm sure that you're a great girl with lots of positive qualities… but you're still a norm." Reaching out, Rachel patted Kate reassuringly on the arm. "I love norms, some of my best friends are norms. Do I want to date one, though? Not really."

Glancing pointedly down at the hand on her arm, Kate waited for Rachel to remove it before responding. "So you're specist then?"

"I wouldn't say specist so much as… looking for someone who won't do their best overripe tomato impression if I get really excited and forget to watch my strength. I'm already a Class 5; if I completely inherit all of my mom's powers, that's going to double over the next few years. Would you wanna get hugged by a girl who can benchpress a city bus?" Rachel eyed Kate challengingly until the brunette raised her hands in surrender, and then let her eyes sweep over to… "Actually, if I was going to date anyone in the team, it'd probably be you. You're super pretty, you're smart, we can swap stories about growing up as the daughter of an Avenger, you're into electronics which means you're detail-oriented with talented fingers… don't suppose the Pym Particles help out at all in the durability department?"

Blushing a bit darker with each compliment, Cassie's face went bright red at Rachel's last observation. It took her a moment to regain her composure, and then she shook her head rapidly. "No. Um, well, kinda. Depends on whether or not you're into ten foot tall girls or not, I suppose? When I height multiply, I pull in extra mass from Kosmos and it reinforces my body. Keeps me from collapsing inward into a giant dead pile of mess on the sidewalk. Not sure if it'd stand up to Class Anything strength, though. Same might be true when I'm a four foot tall girl, come to think of it. I know my dad got stronger and tougher when he shrank, but I'm not really sure of the specifics. I still have a working email for Janet van Dyne; I could write her and ask if you're really curious?"

Rachel appeared to think about that for a moment before shrugging. "Depends on whether or not it's actually relevant. You? Me? Movie? Dinner? First Friday after you find out?" Biting her lower lip, Cassie nodded shyly and Rachel let out a whoop before reaching out her fist to bump it against Cassie's. "Score. I was worried that I'd have to settle for the robot or something as a romantic interest, and I'm not ready to be that much of an Avenger yet. Speaking of the robot… what's up with him and Mini-Wanda? Even if my mission tonight was a bust, I feel like we might be expanding too fast… and given that you're staring at me blankly, Alexis, I'm guessing that Kate isn't the only person missing some memories?"

"You wouldn't be wrong. Although… I think it's less that we're missing memories and more that you have a different set of memories from the rest of us." Wanting a moment to collect her thoughts, Alexis wandered her way over to take a seat at Kate's desk, and then stared up at Rachel consideringly. The blonde had been on their initial short list of recruits even before tonight's events, for quite obvious reasons: she was the daughter of Julia Carpenter and had inherited all her powers. She was also - according to her own Tumblr - 'hella gay', which Amora had seen as a plus for equally obvious reasons. It wasn't the only reason the Asgardian was interested in Rachel, though; she was another 'discrepancy' like Cassie, which was an explanation Alexis was really looking forward to. When Amora said she only wanted to say certain things once, she meant it. The fact that Rachel hadn't simply snapped into existence at the mansion when the timestream realigned hadn't really surprised Alexis too much, because if she'd been there all along then clearly Xander wouldn't have included her in his deal with Kang. But… the redhead honestly hadn't though too deeply about the mechanics of what she was asking Kang to do for her, she now realized. "We'll explain that and more in a minute, but why don't you start by telling everyone what you remember from… how long have we known each other?"

Frowning, Rachel held up her hand and extended several fingers one after another. "Three… four days now? You were waiting on the front porch of my house in Aurora when I got home from school. My mom was strangely supportive of you trying to recruit me for this; probably trying to live vicariously through her not crippled, still powered daughter and all that. I didn't know Amora was involved until we got back to the Doubletree in Denver, which was probably a good move on your part. I mean, she's pretty cool now but I don't even want to think about how Mom would have reacted to her showing up on our doorstep. We stayed there overnight and Amora took me shopping after chewing you out for not making me pack more. We teleported to your apartment in Manhattan the next day, I unpacked, we did a little more shopping because your guest room didn't have furniture yet, and then I enjoyed some well deserved sleep after wrestling that fucking IKEA bed together. Third day, you sent me out to talk to Emily as some sort of test, and then had all sorts of fun without me at St. Patrick's, Lenox Hill, and… wherever you picked up the two newbies who weren't on the list. And now since it's after midnight, we're on the fourth day of me knowing you." Pausing, Rachel thought for a few seconds before holding up one finger. "Oh. And I had sex with your girlfriend twice. How do you survive that shit? I mean, I'm a lot more durable than you and… yeesh."

Amora let out a giggle at that, making her way over to Alexis and sliding onto the redhead's lap. "Amusing, but you're lying. You should have claimed that you had sex with me just once; that I might have believed. But to allow you to return to my bed, I would have required a commitment from you… and I doubt you would be foolish enough to do so and then flirt with another woman in my presence." To emphasize her point, the blonde reached across Alexis and grabbed one of the metal armrests, squeezing it until it deformed with a squeal of protest.

"…am I a terrible person for thinking that you voiding the warranty on my three thousand dollar, custom calibrated ergonomic desk chair is the worst thing that's happened to me today? Wait. It's after midnight. It really is the worst thing that's happened today; the hostage situation and the kidnapping and the Kang shit were all yesterday. Never mind!" Conscience soothed, Kate wandered over and took a seat on the edge of the bed. "Before I can accidentally derail things any further, though… explanations. Make with them. I'd also like to know what your overall plan here is, because I'm still tentatively excited about the idea of being a superhero but not if it means we have to fight the Avengers again."

As Amora began conjuring more chairs for the rest of the rooms occupants, Alexis opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud cough from… they still didn't have anything beyond 'Asgardian' to use with the brunette, did they? Other than Rachel's 'Mini-Wanda', which was accurate but just as awkward to say. "Actually, before we start with long talks or anything, can Amora put me back to normal? Because I'm actually kinda attracted to one of you which is a very weird feeling for a gay boy. I'm not sure I like it."

Kate perked up a bit at that. "Is it… wait, what's your name?"

"Billy."

"…not feeling it. Can we give you a girl name for now?"

"Can I give myself a girl name?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Sara. Not sure why. Kinda feel like a Sara for some reason."

"It's the Anglicized form of Sarra, which means 'princess' or 'noble lady'. Which makes all the girls with that name seem a bit pretentious if you think about it, but…" Trailing off, Kate looked around and then blushed faintly. "What? I have a thing for etymology. Especially with how many of my friends have bizarre, made up names. I like pointing out that my name means 'pure' while theirs ether mean absolutely nothing or something really weird that their parents probably didn't intend."

Alexis let out a soft chuckle as she shook her head in amusement, drawing Kate's attention. "You're a strange girl, Kate. Pretty, talented, lots of potential… but strange. Oh, and you have a thing for onomatology, if you want to get picky. And Katherine meaning 'pure' only came about during Christian times; your name is actually related to either the goddess Hecate or an old Greek word meaning 'each of the two'."

Both of Kate's immaculately maintained eyebrows rose at that. "I stand corrected. I'm not going to admit that anyone because it's really weird and undermines my argument completely, but… good to know? Anyway, our now-named Sara. Are you attracted to me? Please tell me that it's me. Because I am feeling really left out over here."

"Um…" Rubbing the back of her neck, Sara grinned sheepishly before pointing in Cassie's direction. "Not exactly."

"Oh my God! Is she like… walking supernip or something?" Kate threw her hands up in disgust before flopping back onto the bed. "Rachel's taking her out on a date, I caught Alexis staring at her ass when we were wandering the Avengers Mansion, Amora keeps giving her these looks…"

"While I have flirted with Cassie, yes, my interest in her extends far beyond that." Amora waited a few seconds as Kate propped herself up on her elbows and raised an eyebrow curiously before turning her gaze to where Cassie was sitting in Rachel's lap and blushing faintly. "Cassie, darling, tell me… how old are you right now?"

"Fourteen."

"How many years ago did your father become Ant-Man?"

"Six."

"How old were you when your father became Ant-Man?"

"Si… eigh…" Cassie frowned and furrowed her brow in confusion. "I want to say six, but I know the answer is eight. No, the answer is six. But I was six at the time and I'm fourteen now, so that means the answer has to be eight. That's basic math." Suddenly, Cassie sucked in a breath as she threw her head back, hands shooting up to press at her temples as a thin trail of blood began trickling its way downward from her right nostril. "Oww! Shit! What… what's going on? I don't understand!"

Thrusting one hand out, Rachel used a glowing pink tendril of energy to lasso a box of tissues that was sitting on the desk near Alexis and pull them across the room to where she was sitting. Even as she pulled a tissue free and began dabbing at Cassie's nose, the taller blonde eyed Amora speculatively. "Let me guess, you can use a few questions to make me bleed out of my nose too?"

Amora nodded grimly even as Alexis's mind raced, trying to put together what was being hinted at. Discrepancies. Cassie having problems with the timeline of her life. Had… had she caused this by making a deal with Kang? No. Couldn't be. Amora had referred to the pair of blondes as such from the beginning. Unless it was a causality loop: they were discrepancies and Amora knew it because Alexis was in fact supposed to make that deal with Kang and… no, that made no sense either. Or did it? Amora's powers were wide-ranging, after all. But could her magic control time itself? Before her mind could continue down that train of thought, though, Amora thoroughly derailed it. "It could be worse. You're merely not quite what - or rather who - you should be. Poor Sara has got it much worse than you do."

All eyes turned to Sara, who let out a nervous chuckle as she looked down at herself and then back up at Amora. "…why do I get the feeling you're not talking about the fact that I'm the wrong gender right now?"

"You wouldn't be wrong. Cassie, as I believe you are aware, your father's death occurred during a series of events caused by Wanda's slipping grasp on sanity?" Amora waited for the young blonde to nod hesitantly before continuing. "After that, Wanda used her powers to rewrite all of reality, creating a version that was almost idyllic for superhumans in hopes that they would stop harassing her and simply… enjoy their good fortune. Fortunately for me, while her power is great, she could only create a pale shadow of the true Asgard, allowing me to realize something was wrong almost immediately and return to Earth and Xan… Alexis's side in short order. Cassie, while I never fought your father directly, I was aware of both him and you. When I felt the stain of Wanda's powers on you and saw that you were visibly older, the answer seemed obvious: for some unknown reason you were older in her revision of reality and she simply… forgot to put you back where she found you when she was done. Which is understandable; she's quite insane."

Even as Cassie stared at Amora - and a bit at Alexis by proximity - Rachel let out a low whistle and then snapped her fingers. "And since I feel like Cassie does, then the same probably applies to me, doesn't it?" Amora nodded and Rachel thought for a minute before jerking her thumb in Sara's direction. "Her too?"

Amora hesitated for the first time in Alexis's memory, nibbling delicately on her lower lip before shaking her head. "Sara… feels like the magical constructs that Wanda created to populate an Asgard that had never fallen to Ragnarök. Which means that if you consider the world as it stood before her changes to be 'reality'? I'm reasonably certain that Sara shouldn't exist at all."

"…what?"


End file.
